wife good ministery when bad times examples of debauchednesse malitious foes treacherous friends when all these or any would make us thinke our faith was but a fancy and we cast our selves upon a promise in vaine Then looke about thee here and never till now is the triall whether thou hast cast thy selfe upon God or no upon his wisdome to reach thee a way of escape upon his power his truth love and constancy that he can and will free thee Is this faith to pretend casting thy selfe upon God once for all and when trialls come Joh. 11.27.39 to warpe and to say with Martha Now hee stincketh To fling up and downe and say How shall I beare this losse Endure such affront Get out of this poverty Avoid this enemy Cease all other tricks and learne one better then all As the Cat once being challenged by the Fox in point of wit when the Dogs came upon them the Fox with all his wit was torne in peeces the Cat had but one way but it was worth all she got up an high tree and secured herselfe Read Ezra 8.22 He would not dishonour God but fell to the worke of fasting and beleeving and so prevailed Give not thy right in one promise for a world It s a fountaine better then all dry pits A wise man will not sell his possibility of a great inheritance for a trifle assure thy self there is a promise in the word belonging to every duty and every part of a Christians course which who so can beleeve shall go through it whether doing or suffering with sweet ease in respect of him who goeth to work of his owne head He that casts himselfe upon the word cuts off many troubles which others meet with because his heart being well appaid in Gods love is not easily unsettled and as for such as must pinch yet there hee is upheld knowing they come from God in love are no greater then mercy sees meet are such as Christ himselfe is a party in and affords to his members his owne courage meeknesse power and victory to sustaine them in and in his due time will give a redemption from to all who wait for it in well doing and faint not Plead therefore the promise and trust God in all The third Branch of Exhortation concernes those who have cast Branch 3 themselves upon the promise both for pardon Persevering in beleeving procures assurance also for all other support here To such I say give not God over here neither but still presse him for assurance fulnesse of perswasion touching both The faithfull improvement of the promise in respect of the truth of the promiser is often requited by the Lord with such a gratious strength and full faile of the Spirit of the promise as makes God and the soule to grow into close communion and holy familiarity and carries the soule above her doubts feares and complaints because the Spirit of God witnesseth unto our spirits both that we are his and hee ours Nothing shall separate us from his love nor it from us All things pertaining to life and godlinesse shall be ministred This is that which Paul speakes of Ephes 1.13 By which Spirit after you had beleeved you were sealed and by it the Lord makes the soule so interessed in him that as he knowes who are his 1 Tim. 3.1 So they who are his know themselves so reflecting this assurance to their owne consciences so that they walke as enlarged ones because perfect love expells feare I will not say that their joy doth alway equall their peace But their peace equalls their assurance Hence it is that commonly such finde hard duties easie crosses welcome feares vanisht Lesser light in Faith may goe with greater assurance God present in ordinary so that their falls are few and their peace is constant according to that knowledge which they have Which I adde because I doubt not but many an upright Christian may in some cases exceed him in some acts of closenesse and obedience both in doing and suffering who yet goes beyond him in assurance the reason is plaine because assurance followeth not alway upon the greatnesse of light but the constant living by faith in that light which a man hath so that for lacke of light greater faith may come short of that measure of obedience which lesser faith may have To returne let none be wanting to himselfe in seeking the greatest degree but beware of resting upon this that his faith is unfeigned and the faith of the Elect and so never seeke further This is the generall disease of most Christians at this day wherein I am perswaded few attaine that degree which formerly in times of smaller light but more tendernesse conscience watchfulnesse and sincerity with diligence they attained unto Oh thou shalt one day finde the fruit hereof Note this when that broad doore of entrance into the Kingdome shall not be granted thee If any aske by what markes the Spirit of sealing is discerned I answer First by more then ordinary selfe-deniall humility Markes of assurance Luke 5.8 spiritualnesse The nearer the soule comes to God the more it abhorres it selfe Secondly such an one hath much inured herselfe to weigh the promise as that scholler soonest growes to bee above his rules who hath got most exactnesse in his rules Thirdly he is ordinarily free from doubts Rom. 8. ult I am perswaded that neither life nor death c. Fourthly death is welcome to him as it was to Simeon Lord let thy servant depart in peace because mine eyes have seen thy salvation Fifthly such an one is above carnall respects or owne ends for he knowes his requitall is not daunted with trouble hard duties losses for Gods cause for hee understands his hundred fold And so I might adde more which the examples of David and Paul in Scripture will affoord One more I adde If God visit them with any spirituall desertion as he may in extraordinary yet the experience of former mercy at the lowest point keepes them so that the grace of God shall ever be sufficient and therefore they shall bee content for the time of their eclipse to be under infirmity seeing hereby God is most glorified Luke 22.42 and their grace approved Thus it was with our head Christ himselfe and with Paul 2 Cor. 12.9 So much for this third and last Branch and so for the whole use of exhortation Vse 6 Lastly this is use of Comfort and Encouragement to all Gods weake Consolation Weake beleevers must not quaile and give over though sound and faithfull ones who though in much poverty and infirmity of spirit have desired to cast themselves upon the promise when yet their light is divine and their setling and comfort but small Say thine owne heart oft misgives thee saying I have long heard and received the Sacraments with other helps but I cannot put on the Lord Jesus I cannot in particular fasten upon each part of
disease which every man cries out of but few know how to heale and fewer apply the remedy Some tell us Melancholy will have her course when all is done the best cure is to be patient till the fewell be spent Others tell us we must be merry and cheerefull as if a man should bidde a man whose legges are cut off to goe of his errand Others make short work of it and thinke nothing but riddance of their lives will ridde them of it I doe not now speake of the meere bodily humour I leave that to the Physitians Art I meane such accidentall Melancholy as befals men from the sadde reflecting of their condition upon their owne thoughts till they have brought themselves into a maze of confusion Whither this sorrow be carnall or godly either indirectly caused by such diseasednesse of body weaknesse of constitution losses reproach as beginnes to worke the heart to a conceit of Gods displeasure or such depth of Melancholy as ariseth from a long and unprofitable struggling with our spirituall diseases without finding any issue The best cure of both these is by faith in the promises That onely like that sword of Alexander can cut the Gordian knot in pieces at once without picking it out Men spend themselves infinitely about the thought of these sadde dysasters and what may come of them how miserable a plight and pickle they have brought themselves into As if a man fallen into a deepe Well should cry out and tell folke a long tale how he fell in but still lie there and desire no man to hale him out But the best remedy is to cure one contrary by another Guilt and feare an unquiet conscience is that which causeth thy Melancholy All is not as thou wouldest have it thou feelest not thy selfe as thou wouldst be Why what wouldst thou be merry cheerefull a free man ridde of thy chaines Well goe to that which onely can ease the soule of all her distempers that is get the promise of Christ grounded upon the strength of the satisfaction bestow thy plodding thoughts upon a new subject say thus to thy selfe Did God indeed of his owne accord cut off his owne quarrell when he might have destroy'd me in a moment Hath he appointed his owne justice a ransome that he might have strength to resist and disanull it Doth he offer his bare breast and heart of love to be seen by every poore soule that is in straits for want of it and knowes not whither to turne it selfe Doth he bidde such a soule drowne all her guilt and feares in this free and full good pleasure of his to be reconciled with her May she beleeve that the requiring of this price of his owne Sonne will ridde the soule of her debt and discharge her of it Set thine heart then deeply upon this meditation pray God to turne it off from the ill custome of thy distempered thoughts and noysome feares that possesse thee And if thou canst but obtaine this grace to divert them thus I say unto thee That through Gods goodnesse a quarter of that needlesse and distressed plodding of thy misery might drowne thy distempers in the bottome of the Sea and turne thy Melancholy into freedome and joy For why so saith my doctrine Trusting to the Word will ridde the soule of all her distempers Thirdly this point strongly confuteth that Popish tenet That Use 3 no man can come to know himselfe certainly to be in the state of grace and favour with God but we must alway be in doubt Confut. betweene hope and feare and that 's the best way they say to hold us well occupied to keepe us in a wholsome awe and feare of our corruptions and to exercise us in the practice of repentance But as for this faith to ridde us of our distempers that they call a fancie and that a dangerous one as provoking a man to loosenesse and presumption But O yee hypocrites dare you thus dishonour that blessed truth of God built upon such strong foundations as to detract from it the maine prerogative of stablishing the conscience Shall the Promise have no more power in it than the vaine and carnall presumption of an unsound heart Shall both alike leave the soule in staggering Farre be it from us to yeeld so prophane an absurdity As for your revelations which you say have beene given to some speciall Saints of God to assure them of heaven although wee grant that Peter and Paul had greater measure of assurance and more than ordinary freedome from these distempers yet we affirme that the evidence which they had came from no other revelation than that which the Word breedeth by the the concurrence of the Spirit which is no other than faith and as for that greater measure of full assurance of the Spirit it was wrought in them by the promise and faith receiving the same for the Spirit although it be above the Word simply considered yet it is not without the Word Neither is that Spirit so peculiar a thing as is onely given to speciall men but even to some of all sorts of beleevers even so many as it pleases God to stablish after they have long clave to the truth and faithfulnesse of the promiser So Paul speakes Eph. 1. Ephes 1. By whom the Spirit you were sealed after yee had beleeved But to leave these deafe Adders who will not be charmed what should it need to trouble us to heare them speake against the power and authority of the Word who if the Word should prevaile must forfeit their Kingdome of Traditions unwritten verities wherewith they embondage the pretious soules of them whom Christ hath redeemed This Word of God which they so bitterly declaime against being that eternall truth which shall survive all their inventions and that breath of the mouth of God which shall one day consume whatsoever hath set up it selfe against the comfort of a poore soule and the glory of the riches of Grace Meane time we abandon this their conceit as the most horrible cut-throat of the Conscience and the greatest tyranny in the world to wit That a doubting and distempered creature wofully tired with her estate must be compelled to returne to her old misery with an encrease of her bondage worse than Egyptian Use 4 Fourthly this is Terrour Terror to all hypocrites who presumptuously will beare themselves upon the Word boasting that they have got a promise from God and they are called to beleeve they may beleeve they must beleeve They have had troubles as many as the most men have had but God bids them drown them in the freedome of his gracious promise and therefore so they will And although there were but three saved they claime to be of that number no man shall beat them off But as Samuel said to Saul when he pretended he had obeyed the command of God Whence then is the bleating of these sheep and lowing of these oxen So say I to these
being convinced of their killing the Lord of Life were prickt in heart and filled with mourning and tendernesse it is called there a powring out because of that impotencie and unsatisfiednesse which was in it that it could not tel how to expresse it selfe enough to God or man and the holy Ghost uses words of the plurall number noting how frequent their prayers were at first conversion and how bitter those complaints and mournings were for their sinnes So wee know John Revel 2. Revel 2.3 touches the same poâ—nt when he checkes the Church of Ephesus for the losse of her first love we know how tender and ardent that love is which couples do beare each to other when they are first espoused together it may be a patterne all the life after Sometimes it s styled by the name of joy as it is said Matth. 13.44 Matt. 13.44 That when the Merchant had found that Pearle for joy thereof counting himselfe happy therein he went and sold all that he had and bought that Pearle And those in Acts 8. Act. 8.8.39 rejoyced greatly having beene converted by Philip as those who have found an hooâ—d of treasure who would not part with it againe for a world so the Eunuch went away rejoycing Sometime by the esteeme of the messenger Ro. 10. Rom. 10.15 How beautifull are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of peace As Eliezer Gen. 24.30 who brought Isaacs tokens and bracelets and newes of an husband was very welcome for his message sake Sometime it is described by the close fellowship and cleaving of the Saints of God together as Act. 2. Act. 2.44 45. where those that beleeved could not part with each other but sold their possessions and gave the price for the maintenance of their poore brethren Sometime it is noted by the dearnesse of the heart to the Ministers of God as Galat. 4.15 Galat. 4.15 For I beare you witnesse tha you would have pull'd out your very eyes and given to mee And much more by that prodigall spirit of suffering for God Heb. 10.37 as Heb. 10. Call to remembrance the dayes of old wherein you suffered willingly the spoyle of your goods were made a gazing-stocke both by reproaches and afflictions and chap. 11. were persecuted and tormented refusing to be delivered Many phrases are used in the Prophets to describe the strangenesse of this change as chap. 55. end The Thistle shall become a Myrtle tree Esay 55. ult and the Bramble shall become a Fig-tree that is things before uselesse should now put on a new hew and become profitable for all uses yea to describe the acceptablenesse thereof to God it is said That the wildernesse shall be as a flood Esay 35.2 3. and the desert as the garden of God Esay 41.10 and as the face of the earth after the winter is gone and the spring is come In the Canticles there is much to this purpose The winter is past the spring is come Cant. 2.11 12. the voice of the bird is heard the trees bud and the blossomes put forth what do all these phrases of well pleasingnesse intimate saving that savour which the soule brought home to God affords to him and the favour which shee finds in his eyes But what shall I need multiply over-many proofes It is harder to conceale them then to name them Others will offer themselves in the processe of the Doctrine Reas 1 Now for Reasons they are plentifull the first may be this God will have it so for the manifesting of his worke in the soules of Converts For the manifesting of his worke in the soule their course formerly having beene so contrary base and odious to God and man noysome to themselves barren and unprofitable themselves so insensible so dead hearted blockish and savourlesse of good what can be a more sensible marke of mercy to them then that the Lord hath wrought such a change such affections desire hunger love tendernesse closenesse to communion forgetting their dung-hill their pleasures lusts vanities companies What could be a sweeter marke to a rude savage Jaylor of conversion Act. 16.29 then to spring in to the Apostles wash their wounds make them great cheere and send them away from their chaines What could more comfort the heart of poore Lydia Ibid. then for a coy Dame now to hang upon the Apostles and to say If you have found me faithfull abide in my house So that the Lord in part doth it for the better contenting the hearts of such who if some such apparent change were not wrought would be ready to vanish in their feares and acknowledge no worke at all to be wrought Reas 2 The second Reason Because as in the early loves of the married For their heartning against their difficulties See Luk. 5.34 35 37. while they are together in the Bride-chamber all is festivall after-sorrowes must not be mentioned for those will come alone and too soone now it is honey-moone now all must sound of joy and gladnesse and to talke of debts children charge of house-keeping and crosses it is out of season so is it here The Lord foreseeing the many brunts damps eclipses and sorrows which his people must meet with gives them this wine of his flagons and these Apples and dainties to make merry with that they might forget care and endeare their hearts at first so deeply in himselfe that when troubles must come the remembrance of the love of their youth may encourage them to beare the more willingly and when they are growne stronger to beare then he conceales their first delights and allots them harder conditions suffers their feasting to be turn'd to fasting their mirth into mournings their songs into sorrow suffers them to be crockt among the pots hurried in the world dampt with hard conditions and files of their first edge that their inward metall and substance may grow better Thus he fits them for both conditions Reas 3 Thirdly he causes these expressions to come from them that they may not lie hid To make them objects of observation in the world like Saul in the stuffe but be objects of marke and observation in the eyes of others Sometimes God puls out Wisedome out of her corners and clothes her with all orient and beautifull colours that she might raise up admirable love of her selfe in such as behold her And when it is thus each man covets to have a share in her These admirable operations which God workes in his converted ones are so convincing and precious that even they who do not desire them for themselves will yet covet them for their beauty and comelinesse which they see in others Whose heart was not pierced in the Gaolers house to see such strange affections bred in him all of a sudden when the Lord comes into a family and discovers his worke in some one or two in tender sorrow in savory desires after the promise unwearied
for the deed 2. Looke upon thine owne grace and hide my defects 3. Betrust me with the principles of sincerity and faith working by love which will make a little goe a great way 4. Make my lusts to be my clogs as Sauls armour to David 5. Make the yoke of hard dangerous disgraced solemne duties and crosses to be tollerable pag. 374 People exhorted to love honour and support their Ministers How that may bee pag. 392 People that will seeme to love their Minister that so they may snort in their sinnes odious pag. 400 Popish Martyrs against the Scriptures not to be regarded notwithstanding their pretended selfe-deniall 415. Popish falshood in all their wayes pag. 415 People must be sincere and open to receive good counsell pag. 425 Poore men have a priviledge above the rich in this That they may bee reproved pag. 425 Proud harts terrified by Gods resisting pag. 468 Plead hard for faith if once wee bee under the condition pag. 481 Promise must be pleaded for sanctification as well as pardon pag. 511 Perseverance in beleeving breeds assurance pag. 513 Promises must bee beleeved according to their nature and kinde 567. Reasons of it Popish abusers of promises terrified pag. 579 Preposterous appliers of promises reproved pag. 582 Promises must be beleeved according to the utmost extent of them wherin it stands in three things 1. A promise must bee sounded to the bottome 2. Wee must draw out of the wells of salvation 3. The promise must not bee given over though wee be long held off pag. 583. 584 Physitians must know themselves to be only instruments of providence for such as God will have to recover pag. 588 People are very fond in magnifying the outward instrument neglecting God ibid. Popish Miracles and Cures what they are to be thought of pag. 590 Pelagian spirits which cavill at the freedome of the grace of God far from the true spirit of cure and conversion 869. So are Popish spirits likewise pag. 870 Prayer for healing the numb palsie of the spirit of our times necessary pag. 886 Q. Quarrellers against the Minister for not comforting the distressed sinfull pag. 456 R. Rebellion in all whom God meanes to save shall worke greater humiliation in them pag. 60 Repentance goes not before faith pag. 103 Religious Selfe how dangerous Vide Selfe Rationall carriage not simply to bee condemned pag. 209 Religion stands more in wanting somewhat then in having pag. 237 Religion is like an harmony pag. 250 Religion grounded upon most sound foundations pag. 253 Religious servants yet failing in faithfulnesse are to bee blamed 306. Their trickes and qualities ibid. Resigning up of the soule to God is one chiefe work of faith pag. 500 Revolters from their first zeale and grace of conversion are in a sad case pag. 871 S. Scriptures filled by the holy Ghost with rarities and wonders and why Two causes pag. 2. 3 Sensible and outward objects the meanes by which God workes upon us ibid. Scriptures bark and outside not to be rested in but the scope and sense pag. 6 Soveraignty of Gods will and pleasure must cause us first to confesse it 14. 2. To lye humbly and quietly under the conviction of it 15. in sundry particulars 1. By considering the root of this soveraignty ib. 2. Bee content that God dspence his grace according to his owne measures 16. 3. Iudge not God in the effects of soveraignty as in the sinnes penalties or snares of the wicked ibid. 6. Nor for punishing the sinnes of parents upon their posterity 17. 7. Doe the uttermost that lies in thee to obey ibid. 8 Be charitable to others a farre off ibid. 9. Break thy hard hart hereby lay down thy pride and rebellion 18. Then the â—â—use soveraignty is free to save as well as destroy 19. Look not at election but at the tree offer ibid. Assay to beleeve and that upon sound warrant by venturing upon the promise 20. 21. Lastly know this is the greatest honour which thou canst doe to God pag. 22 Straits and extremities are Gods season to pull downe a proud heart 29. In how many respects See the reasons ibid. Straits both publick and personall do but little humble men in these times pag. 36. 37 Straits doe make hypocrites onely to counterfeit 33. Not to be trusted ibid. Straits are very unpleasing to flesh we are lâ—â—th to heare of them lest wee shouâ—d humble our selves and profit bâ— them pag. 38 Shun not straâ—ts for first it is bootlesse and then they câ—nnot bee mâ—ssed 39. Pray for â—n holy use of them not to awe thee violently but change thy heart pag. 40 Signes and Sacraments why used by the Lord in effecting spirituall things pag. 85 Sacraments differ from common signes ibid. And why 1. To stop mans bold inventions 2. To assure weake faith of his sincerity ibid. Suspect trials bee comming upon us when our state is calmest pag. 96 The manifold snares in the way of Gods people should make them watch and bee armed ibid. Selfe the main enemy to rob the soule of grace when all is done 98. and why because most inward and immediate pag. 101 Selfe in the root of it is nothing but the instinct of old Adam and the frame or vent of a corrupt heart ibid. Selfe of two sorts either opposite Selfe to Christ or mixing Selfe with Christ ibid. Selfe opposite what ibid. Of how many sorts it is ibid. Five named Prophane selfe Naturall selfe Carnall selfe Creature selfe Religious selfe ibid. Selfe prophanenesse described ibid. Self natural or civill described pag. 164 Carnall selfe or savour of the flesh what The sorts of it many ibid. Selfe sensuality or in the Creature what pag. 111 Selfe-religion what The branches of it three pag. 115 Mixt selfe in what particulars it discovers her selfe 121. Ten or twelve mentioned Nature of mixt selfe discerned in foure things 1. Familiarnesse 2. Generalnesse 3. Violence 4. Tenaciousnesse pag. 127 Selfe supports her selfe by false comparisons pag. 128 Satan imbarkes himselfe more deeply in Selfe then in other corruption pag. 129 Self deludes by Gods just giving her over to her selfe pag. 129 Selfe may be discerned by three degrees or properties ibid. Passages of Selfe may bee conceived three wayes 1. By the ground 2. The carriage 3. The scope pag. 131 Selfe is but flesh in all the worke of Law and Gospel and how pag. 132 Carriage of Selfe is sutable to her ground which appeares in foure things 1. Her instinct 2. Her eagernesse 3. Her endeavour 4. Her disappointment ibid. The ends of Selfe and her scope is sutable to the ground and carriage pag. 138 All seekers of salvation must abhorre Selfe and how 1. In discerning her trickes divers of them mentioned 139. Shee will deny herselfe in somewhat to satisfie herselfe in other things 2. To mask sin under holinesse 3. To defile it selfe in that it knoweth 4. Pretence to seeke God but intending it selfe 5. To offer God more service then he
with what an humble sober heart he used life it selfe and much more all inferior comforts whose tenant at will he confessed himselfe to be and with what an heart he commended his spirit into the hands of him that gave it as oft as he lay downe to his rest And sure it is the little acknowledging of this Soveraignty and salvation of God is the cause why many of us are compelled to learne it by sad experience who else might enjoy it with more freedome Gods not being tyed to us in grace urges Prayer for daily assisting grace as very necessary The like I might speake touching Gods spirituall safeguard of our soules and the salvation of his Church The Lord is not absolutely tyed to us in these respects We should humble our soules for these also and say thou canst Lord if thou wilt vouchafe me such a measure of comfort by beleeving peace in my conscience admiration at thy love burning zeale for thy glory compassion and brokennesse of heart for my breaches of covenant and daily failings Thou hast the key of the wombe of heaven of the deepes the grave and of mine heart Lord the restraints or enlargements thereof are from thee Thou hast promised thy grace shall be sufficient 2 Cor. 12.7 Esai 63.13 but my wretched proud defiled soule may provoke thee to shrinke in thy graces thy rolling of bowels and opennesse of spirit But yet thou art the soveraigne Lord of thine owne good things thou canst if thou wilt remoove my tickling heart after the world mine envy pride hypocrisie Thou canst if thou wilt purge out my sloth deadnesse hardnesse of heart security unthankefulnesse and the like Oh Lord these cause me to walke sadly and to grone daily for ease Oh that thy good pleasure were to perfect thy first grace with this second assistance and efficacy and to cast in all those promises to the first which concerne mortification and a new creature Oh that I might not provoke thee by my wilfulnesse and unbeliefe to restraine the influence of heaven from mee and to make thy clowdes as brasse and mine heart as iron Lord thou mayst in thy soveraigne free grace enlarge thy selfe let not my base rebellious distempers dry up the welspring of thy promises God gives not account of all his matters And to conclude the Lord is a soveraigne God also in respect of his administration of his whole militant Church Although she be his spouse and hath a right to all his goodnesse yet God gives not an account of all his matters nay oftentimes she incurres a premunire with God and by her former lazy Laodicean temper of a fulsome carelesse surfeted spirit deserves that the Lord should use his soveraignty and prerogative of discipline over her for her correction and amendment Therefore although he take not his loving kindnesse from her yet Sins of the Church the cause of Gods hiding himselfe her Lethargy and Palsey frame her wearinesse and contempt of his ordinances and their power may cause him to chasten her with the rods of men Now we are in such cases of wanting the meanes of injury and violence of times encroaching of enemies inundation of errors and profanenesse and decay of love and zeale in the better sort very prone to taxe Gods wisedome and call him to our barre as if we would teach him more wisedome See Jer. 12.1.2 But alas the Lord is a soveraigne God and knowes what physicke our maladies require he knowes our rust will not be filed off without much rubbing and scowring He lookes at the generall ends of his providence which are to punish severely the declensions and revolts of such as professe his Name let us not wonder that our praiers sticke in their ascent and prevaile little we looke still at meanes and ordinances to be still as we have beene but the Lord lookes at the melting and purging out our drosse and trying us whether we be reprobate silver or no. In this case what shall we doe call for our prayers backe againe and give the Lord over No surely let us know we can goe no whither to speed better if we leave him but confesse his soveraigne power might force him to a decree against us lie low licking the dust of his feet John 6.68 2 King 23.2.3 c. Jer. 45.5 Psalm 119. Mica 7.9 with Iosia and his people striving as much against the streame as we can and craving our owne lives may be given us as a prey if we can speed for no more but however not forsaking our covenant nor giving him over through a sullen discontented heart till either he plead our cause and bring forth our light or else make our poore lives tolerable in the midst of our sorrowes and teach us wisely and faithfully to serve our time So much for the second Use Thirdly this doctrine is confutation and reproofe of the enemies of Vse 3 Gods soveraignty or the cavillers and abusers of it First Confutation of all Cavellers against the Soveraignty of God all such as take away the ground of this soveraignty of God For if it be so as many dreame that man is only in a darke dungeon yet still hath his eyes in his head to see and apprehend light if it be offred and a liberty of will by Sort. 1 the benefit of light to embrace and receive it sure it is God hath not man at such a deepe advantage as we speake of ye must marke all the grace of such men is the will of the flesh upon generall enlightning Secondly Sort. 2 all that fight against the royall freedome of Gods dispensation of grace by the meanes to some and not to others both being every way alike I say equally distant from it or from any propension and accommodation toward it either within or without Oh! it frets them to the very heart to heare that there should be any such liberty ascribed to God! They confesse that on mans part there may be some barres to hinder grace But they cannot endure it that when the object lyes indifferently disposed then soveraignty should reject or receive upon meere will no reason at all appearing this cuts them to the heart that they may not bind the hands of God behind him to carry himselfe alike to all who lye in equall and faire correspondence to it But O ye wretches goe learne what this meanes not of the willer or the runner but of mercy Not our making toward grace but graces making towards us saves us Rom. 9. Thirdly it reproves our carnall vanity who in our thoughts will be bold Sort. 3 to prefer such to Gods grace as please us well for their gifts hearings repeatings of sermons doing duties and forwardnesse without teaching them to humble their soules and cast out their Pharisaicall spirit which hinders more then all their gifts further them Oh! Matth. 8. as those Jewes spake of that Ruler that he deserved he should doe him the
favour of healing so these thinke it were but reasonable that God should grant mercy to such a towardly and zealous childe or novice But as that Ruler hearing of their words to Christ came himselfe and abased himselfe cast off his merit and his building of a Synagogue professing himselfe unworthy under whose roofe Christ should come and so prevailed so must thou deale with the soveraignty of mercy if ever it be thine No no not the appearances of man can bind the Lord but his free love must overrule him The most poore despised impotent and silly wench among all thy brood may speed of mercy when the bravest wittiest and hopefullest of thē goes without Look at none despise none by the outward semblance Grace is free who knowes but thou mayst be an instrument of soveraignty to breed some savor of mercy even in that wife of thine which hath long beene most averse in spirit in that poore drudge of the kitchin who hath come last to prayers that child which of all the rest seemes of least capacity its not the easinesse of our heart to accept nor the rebellion thereof to refuse but the invinciblenesse of the Lords soule who cannot be pulled from his Elect and the efficacy of grace and powerfull mercy which carries the will of the creature before it not by compelling or necessitating of it but by a sweete perswasion and drawing it by his owne cordes to beleeve it making it of nilling willing and of willingable and effectuall to embrace it Sort. 4 Fourthly it must stop all the base cavills of men Oh! saith one I have spent the best part of seven yeares to obtaine a broken heart and cannot get it I see such and such can so melt and be so lowly upon the first hearing of the Word and grow to some measure of faith in short time as is incredible Surely if I had belonged to God I had long since been accepted Why Is not God the soveraigne giver or denier the furtherer or delayer of his owne grace Is not mercy his owne to give at his pleasure Is it not thank-worthy if thou get it at the eleventh houre even upon the Crosse with the theefe Esay 65.1 Is God tyed Is he not sometime found of them that seeke him not who never dreamt of him but walked in their ignorance and jolly in their lawlesse way And doth he not suffer some that seeke him with a Pharisaicall heart to goe without yea although they seeke him humbly and painefully doth not he know his owne best season Is thine eye evill because his is good doth he tie himselfe alway to one course God courses in the drawing home of his very divers No surely some he inclines to the meanes and breeds an hope a farre off others he holds under the meanes a long time in darkenesse the truth is he is tyed to no course to no persons seasons meanes or measures Turne thine impatience to humble selfe-deniall and adore God in his liberty goe to worke aright and ascribe to no meanes nor to thy selfe but his meere good pleasure and this will Sort. 5 prove the neerer way home though it seeme further about Fifthly doe not abuse this doctrine to forestall thy care in the use of meanes Doe not waxe out of measure wicked in shaking of all diligence to heare because God hath the whole strength in his owne hand to determine as he pleases But know that as the end so the meanes and the ordering thereof is in his hands Wouldst thou deny thy selfe all succors of the creature to feed and cherish thee because if the Lord have appointed thee to live Sort. 6 thou shalt live and if to dye no meanes shall sustaine thee Also doe not by this doctrine disorder the secret and revealed will of God but reverendly distinguish and observe both The one is that by which hee hath determined the ends Gods will double with the difference The other whereby he appoints the duties of men The one is unknowne to thee adore it but snare not thy selfe with it let not that forestall thy care and diligence in use of the meanes appointed by the revealed will Say not thus if I knew my selfe ordained to salvation I would apply my selfe willingly to them but how doe I know whether I belong to God Quest and shall not use the meanes in vaine to encrease my judgement Answ I answer thee Election is not revealed to any to encourage them to use meanes or beleeve But meanes of faith are offered to incourage to beleeve The knowledge of Election in such as attaine it flowes from faith not faith from it Fall thou to the meanes as God offers them which shall bee a signe unto thee of an humble and plaine heart and descant not upon that thou knowest not a signe of a froward rebellious spirit Thou art in the dungeon the Lord offers thee a ladder to come out cords and rags to hale thee up As Ebedmelec did to Ieremy Should Ieremy standing in his mire Jerem. 38.11 have felt more will to descant upon Ebedmelecs purpose in the casting in of rags and cords then desire to apply himself to the way of comming out might he not have lyen long enough there but if God have given thee the heart of Ieremy to tremble at the dungeon thou wilt not find leasure to quarrel with Ebedmelec what his meaning is unto thee but simply judge his meaning by his act his love by his cords and say thou mayst leave me here still with my cordes upon my shoulders but it seemes not so by thy offer for then thou mightst have spared this labor Therefore I obey thy charge and trust thee for drawing me up who gavest me thy cords and when I am drawne out then will I say now I know thy good will by the effect thereof Doe so in this case and prosper And so much for this second generall arising from the whole context And also for this time Let us pray c. THE SECOND LECTVRE VPON THE NINTH VERSE 9 So Naaman came with his horses and charets and stood before the dore of Elisha 10 And Elisha sent a messenger c. WEE come now beloved more closely to the words themselves Entrance upon the ninth vers and begin with this ninth verse as an introduction to the points following to the twentieth although it containe none of the five generalls which I intend chiefely to dwell upon yet it is the key to unlocke the doore of entrance upon all It containes the immediate occasion of the miraculous cure and conversion of Naaman Containing the Antecedents of the cure of Naaman and of those antecedent passages which lead unto it both the message of Elisha and Naamans entertaining thereof of which after But for this ninth verse sithence it hath in it some maine points of doctrine which depend upon the connexion of former verses we must open them first as all points gathered out of
colour is to confute the Prophets message The summe is the Prophet hath sent for me to make a gull of me pretending to heal me when he intends nothing lesse For if he did to what end should he prescribe me to wash in Jorden If washing there would serve how comes it to passe that there bee so many Lepers in Israel unhealed And if so be Jorden be such soveraigne water what are our rivers at home Abana and Pharfar which yet never were knowne to be medicinable for the leprosie What a message then is this to send me Wash in Jorden and be clean Lo I beseech you to what a man may come who is blind-folded with selfe He will stiffen himself in his error by any argument comming next hand Carnal reason then here offers it selfe to confute the message as a mockery And how I pray doth it argue Thus It s a senslesse unlikely thing nay impossible to reason What then hast thou forgot thy selfe Naaman Camest thou to be healed by reason or by a Prophet What a consequence is this Carnall reason judgeth otherwise therefore it is ridiculous that Jorden should heale Nay rather if a Prophet from God will heale by Jorden why may he not For he heales not by Jorden as Jorden but as by an instrument of Gods divine power Therefore rather to argue against God by carnall reason is more ridiculous Thus much for the opening of these two verses The first generall handled viz. Why God delayed the cure still That he might know himself I will first give a briefe touch of the triall which God put here upon Naaman in delaying his cure Why was it To try all which was in his heart and to make him see what metall he was made of God was loath to send him away with his cure and a proud wrathfull heart withall Therefore now he discovers him to himselfe and rather by this delay of the miracle chuses to make all his crouching and humblenesse breake out into rage and distemper bewray him openly then he should nuzzle up himselfe in a faire opinion of that which is not in him Question But it wil bee demanded Did Naaman feele the Lord present in this worke Did hee not as a carnal man in all this or is it any wonder he should be a wrathful raging man being a Heathen and crossed in his maine aime I answer Answer We must not so much conceive him as he is in his owne sense as in Gods shaping him to his own end by grace and conversion Naaman to be conceived of as one under Gods workmanship When once Naaman truly came to himselfe both the former rubs and this affront of delaying his healing wrought a marvellous abasement in his soule and set forward the worke exceedingly I have already handled the reason why the Lord stopt Elisha from comming out Now I would briefly adde this how God tries him in disappointing his haste and thereby occasions him to rebell and break out that he might know himselfe yet more thorowly And let it teach us this That the custome of God is Doctrine Whom God will save he will teach them to to know all in their heart when hee is working any great change in any hee will try them deeply and make them know what is in their spirits They shall finde many a stop in their course things shall not succeed as they desire God wil hide himself from them and seeme not to regard their labours prayers teares endevours but suspend their hopes and desires from such successe as they look for And why To try them of what frame they are whether their forwardnesse Reason 1 and zeale bee well planted in them or no whether they will wait or make haste attend meekly or run headlong If they fall to distemper and wearinesse God will shew it unto them that they may afterward watch and have themselves in a deep jealousie and not bee deceived with the appearance of grace in stead of substance If they stick to the triall and carry themselves meekly and quietly under Gods delayes and prolongings of his time that then they may acknowledge by what strength they stand However it is very fit they should be tried Thus the Text saith Deut. 8.2 Deut. 8.2 that the Lord dealt with the Israelites in the Wildernesse First hee would not lead them the right way by the land of the Philistims but by the Wildernesse and there hee would so hold them occupied that whereas they might have been there in fourty dayes he led them a traverse of fourty yeares Hee held them to hard-meat and when he gave them a supply yet hee gave them but from hand to mouth and why was all this Moses tells them even to try all that was in their heart to turne it up-side-downe that by all the weary journey of the Desert their hunger their wants Gods provision their unthankfulnesse Gods judgements wasting them delaying and crossing their lingring after Canaan a land flowing with milk and hony by the ruine of all the carcasses of them that came out of Egypt the Lord might cause them to know themselves the Lord thorowly deny themselves wait upon his promise and enjoy Canaan with a more humble and thankfull heart then else they had done Otherwise what boot had it been to have brought thē into Canaan with their fathers spirits The land certainly had surfeted them and vomited them out else as soone as they had come in but now Reason 2 experience of the Wildernesse taught them how to walke before God God begins with his people as he means to proceed The Lord begins with his owne as hee means to proceed Hee meanes to make them patient meek enemies to selfe privie to more corruption then the world knowes of jealous and watchfull and willing to be as God will have them and to thinke it best to be base when God sees it meet this I say the Lord is faine to deale with his betimes even in the first beginnings of his grace as a man would bow a twig as he would have it grow after And therefore in the very threshold he stops their hasty course and whereas they would thinke they might be converted and beleeve quickly asoone as they feele their need and heare of a promise lo the Lord makes it a longer worke then so and delayes them till he have laid a foundation for after times till he have made them know all that is in their heart and not think much of Gods corrections afterward as having been traind up to the yoke from their youth Ephraim was as an heifer unaccustomed to the yoke Jer. 31.31 but when she was yoked and humbled she converted to God and smote upon her thigh and so was fitter for mercy then when she was wild and unbroken Reason 3 And to say the truth if the Lord did not thus delay us in our haste and put a stop upon us in our proceedings
must needs vanish and leave the soule as low as ever they found it and so the longer and closer they are clave to the greater confusion they cause till the soule being weary of her owne pride and mixtures freely resigne it selfe as empty and nothing to the meere good pleasure perswasion and leasure of the spirit to act and effect all both preventings assistings and perfectings by his owne strength which is alway strongest when the soule lies lowest as the red earth of which Adam was formed till the Lord breathed the spirit of life into it And surely to conclude there is nothing more easie then to be deluded in the triall hereof for such is the inchantment of self in this kind that no experience of disappointing the soule by her false feelings will teach her to deny her selfe and humble her self before God except only she apply her selfe closely to the rule of the word in every steppe she takes examining from what bottome her affections and preparations proceed and finding self to be chiefe in the work instantly to suspect it and constantly to resist it beleeving that the most abiding and lasting worke of humâ—liation and preparation proceeds from the sweetnesse and freedome of a promise from a reconciled God when the heart is most desolate and helplesse in her selfe By these few the reader may perceive what I meane by this privy-selfe and by these heads hee may learne to judge of other like which are infinite Now then I proceed to prove the point that this mixt selfe when all is done will deprive the soule of mercy if it be not prevented Let the first text be that Heb. 4. ult We see they were disappointed of the entring into his rest why were not they faire for it Proofes of the point yes surely they had forsaken Egypt and come a great journey in the wildernesse But what letted them Unbeleefe And what caused that Selfe Not only their wishing to be in Egypt at their fleshpots nor yet their fornication and Idolatry But as Esay tells us they rebelled against his holy spirit Esay 63.10 Their spirituall rebellings cavillings distrust were the causes They erred in heart as the Psalmist calls it that is Psal 9.2 they entertained false conceits against him sometime they asked Can God spread a table in the wildernesse Sometime they pitied their children saying Alas We shall never see Canaan Sometime they said Numb 9. the Giants were able to eat them up there were chariots of iron Sometimes they said this was not the way God might as well have brought them the right way to Canaan as the wrong if he had meant them well They made the promise of entring easily and plaine in it self to be difficulter then it was some saying it is as high as heaven how shall we get thither can we climbe up others thus it is as deep as the nethermost earth how shall we descend thither is it possible for us to construe so hard a promise whereof we see neither sense or colour to make a worke of forty daies to be forty yeares and yet meane us well Therefore Moses tells them Deut. and Rom. 10. say not the word is far off for it is neare thee in thy mouth yea thine heart that thou mightest beleeve it The deceit of the erring hearts warped these crotchets to hold them out of Canaan and to scatter their carcasses in the wildernesse Another text is Heb. 12.15 Heb. 12.15 Let no man faile of the grace of God Let there be no bitter roote springing up in you to defile you and turne you off He had spoken before of Esau who was the first borne and sought the blessing with teares yet failed of it he came too late after it was conveied away from him too sure to Iacob why he had a bitter roote springing up in him a selfe-willed peevish heart against his brother he disdained that he should be preferred The Apostle applies it to the Hebrewes who were faire for the promise read Rom. 10.1 2 3 4 Rom. 10.1 2 3 4. 5 6. c. but yet failed and lost it the Gentiles were preferred And why there was this bitter roote of selfe in them they stood upon their conceit none were the Church save they none so righteous as they They scorned that dogs should goe to heaven before those whose righteousnesse was so precise as theirs and this conceit defiled hardned them and overthrew the righteousnesse of Christ They could never submit selfe to the word preached nor comply with it but bitterly rejected it and them who preacht it as being a new way to heaven and not that which they had learned and should they stoop to this new learning of Christ This bitternesse overthrew them So Ahaz Esay 8. Esay 8. was faire for the promise of victory insomuch as the Prophet bid him demand a signe he would not why Selfe-presumption letted him he thought he was sure enough of God if once he spake the word But the Lord looked at his owne honour and therefore gave his people a signe by a Virgin that should conceive and bring forth a sonne So that the confidence of his foolish heart which thought hee beleeved God whereas in truth he sought himselfe onely and not the glory of God Luke 4. deceived him So it is said Luke 4. the Pharisees and Elders comming to Iohns baptisme despised the counsell of God touching their salvation why because they were carried with strong self-prejudice against the way of Iohns Ministery and chose rather not to bee faved at all then that way The Galathians were faire for heaven also and ran well Gal. 3. what letted them a misprision thrust into their heads by false teachers that Pauls way and Gods way agreed not and that the old way by Ceremonies was best easiest and likeliest because agreeing with flesh and this makes Paul to feare lest he had bestowed his paines upon them in vaine Our Saviour Christs Disciples were faire for faith what letted them selfe-sloth dulnesse of heart Oh you dull and slow of heart to beleeve all which is written in the Law and Prophets concerning Christ Luke 24. in what a depth of darkenesse did it hold them Their eies were held so downe that they could not discerne the Lord Jesus when hee stood and talked with them I will but adde one or two more That yong man in the Gospell was not farre from the Kingdome what stopped him Surely he came full of himselfe and had kept the Law from his youth this he had a strong conceit of but when hee was turned out of that confidence and put into a new way of selfedeniall and selling all he went away sorrowfull not onely because he was covetous but because forestalled in opinion that his way was best and is now crossed To conclude that is a solemne text which our Saviour urges Ioh. 5. Joh. 5. How can ye beleeve when ye seeke or receive
seeking it they are not afraid to deceive the Minister about their condition and so deceive themselves But a dead comfort they are content withall and if any call it into question they stoppe his mouth with this the Minister of God comforted mee with such and such texts But oh thou beast It appeares since by thy base and common course that the Minister of God was deceived in thee thy glosing and semblance of sorrow thy selfe-loving complaints and desires and thirstings deceived him and thy selfe also Were that Minister to conferre againe with thee upon due knowledge of thee he would professe thou deceivedst him and thine owne soule much more for hee never comforted thee otherwise then upon such conditions as thou never hadst But I digresse too much In all these respects I say Conclusion who ever thou art who canst unfainedly speak it that God by the Minister hath met with thy sinne humbled thee for it let in some glimpse of mercy to stay thee for a time not suffered thee to rest there while thou couldest see how that light encreased as the day and how it bred in thee such affections as brought thee to settle upon the free and eternall satisfaction of Christ for pardon and peace I say in what poore measure soever these have beene wrought yet thou hast felt scales to fall from thine eyes deadnesse from thy heart and grace to enter by degrees till thou sawest cause to rest in some sort upon the naked love of the promiser Thou hast infinite cause to blesse God all daies of thy life I will not now bid thee beware of forgetting the Minister of God and passing him by as a stranger as hypocrites do for thou shalt prise him above the parents of thy flesh doe otherwise if thou canst Gal. 2. he shall bee so deare to thee that thou shalt pull out thine eies to doe him good yea esteeme him as one of a thousand and there shall be a perpetuall ascent of praises to God from thine altar it shall smoke continually and although thine edge may blunt yet thy metall of admiration and thankes shall abide for ever Consider tenne miscarry to one that prospers by counsell they returne to their old sloth ease and distempers they relapse to their worldlinesse selfe love and lie under a clod If then thou hast beheld the wisdome and savoured the good of the ordinance try thy selfe throughly as touching the fruit it hath wrought in thee take not glasse for gold and pebbles for pearles be sure the Lord have thee in a cord surely bound to him for playing the starter and time server as most doe and I say give over the Lord if thou canst But surely while these coales are in thy bosome thou shalt be burnt and as long as thou hast this treasure about thee thou canst not wilt not chuse but bee exceedingly thankefull and cheerefull So much for this Vse 2 Secondly let it bee a speciall caveat to Gods Ministers is it so choice a peece of worke Admonition 1. Branch M nisters must not count this a slâ—ght worke 2 Cor. 1. Esay 50.4 to speake a word in season to a heavy heart Doe not imagine the art of that to bee so easie as most Ministers doe the worke whereof is so difficult and the fruit whereof is so pretious Thinke it not a small thing to be a Minister of reconciliation Paul saith God hath made him meet for it hee had comforted him that by his consolation hee might comfort others A tongue of the learned is no easie matter to come by M.R.G. Once an holy man in this Church after long labours in the Ministery though contrary to some mens judgement thought it meet to leave his charge to betake himselfe to the worke of speaking a word to the weary as seeing it to be a full work great use of it finding himself fitted I would not advise any to do so whom God holdes in but I would have none of what parts soever to thinke this an easie gift such an one as will flow from the meere habit of his understanding studies of Divinity or paines in preaching alone Discerning of leprosie was a peculiar skill of the high Priest Read Levit. from the 12. to the 15. So this is a speciall gift by it selfe obtained by study of thine owne heart acquaintance with the infinite windings and subtilties of it by much selfe-deniall much strife in applying the promise Also much experience is required to judge aright of the states of the distressed much reading and through acquaintance with the Scriptures much meditation and conference much praier both ordinary and extraordinary must prevaile with God for it Helpes to enable a Minister to it yea commonly it is the gift of such as have beene much buffeted with temptations humbled and tozed under Satan and their owne corruptions such as have wrastled much with the Lord for a blessing and halted upon it that they might not be puffed up but learne to be willingly under infirmity I say it is the gift for the most part of such as have laboured to destroy their sense and reason in and by faith and the promise holding the realnesse of it from the truth of the promiser whatsoever flesh say to the contrary Yea it requires great love a meeke and tender heart burning with the weake to be all in all for Gods ends losing our owne in his and cleaving to the worke for Gods cause unweariedly against discouragements whatsoever I exclude no other learning arts tongues for a Divine but for this part of Ministry I say there is another course to be taken for it Alas who should wonder that there should be few counsellors under the Lord Jesus whose office it is Esay 8. of distressed ones Nay that in stead of comforters there should bee so many discouragers and miserable comforters Alas there are few that taste the method which I have spoken of If it were but this one thing alone it might easily resolve us of this wonder even to think how few there be who discerne aright of soul diseases or the estate of the poore as the Psalmist speaks How easie is it to be cheated by the cunning tricks of base hypocrites who come onely to serve their owne turnes How had blinde Ahija been deceived by Ieroboams wife but for God 1 King 4.4.5 I professe of late there came to my selfe a drunken companion for comfort and if God had not specially armed me beforehand and discovered his spirit I might have beene deceived in him and when he was gone hee reported me to be uncharitable But all that knew him knew that he slandred me Who is sufficient for these things If God keepe the state of a poore soule from us as Elisha said of the Shunamites dead child how shall we speake to the purpose but patter 2 King 4.27 How many worthy and wise ones have beene mistaken for I speake not of such as
last not long The greatest danger is lest the heart being rid of them wax wanton and secure and bee not humbled for that corruption whence these have their welcome and fiery fiercenesse 3. Rule Oâ—serve the measure of the trouble The third rule is observe wisely of what measure the trouble and affliction is If it be moderate then proceed accordingly But if it be excessive so that extremities may be feared succour the fainting heart with some hope even at the first though perhaps the condition of it may bee farre from applying a promise Yet because the horror or trouble may threaten despaire or violence Shew such a one that the Lord delights in no such thing but in mercy to the oppressed and when the heart is eased then returne to such a method of counsell by degrees as their estate needeth Necessity as we say hath no law Much may be done to avert a present danger which else might stay longer The jaylor was to be staid for feare of selfe-murther 4. Rule Whether terror come from sin or feare of punishment Fourthly discerne wisely of terrors of conscience whether from sin as sin or as a mischiefe which cloggeth and loadeth the heart excessively Many a wretch and these dayes are full of such will roare and cry out of himselfe the horriblenesse of his sins their returns upon him after intermission not from any true abhorring of the evill of them but because God dogs his cursed heart delighting in those evills with shrewd terrors which although they are two extremities I meane great swinge and sweetnesse in sinne and great horrors for sinne yet nothing hinders why both may not be at once and yet the mediocrity farre off In such a case to beleeve such a wretch for his outcries and horrors when it is manifest he doth but seeke for hope and sodering and possibility of pardon that hee may returne to his vomit the more boldly were to adde oile to the flame The marke of such is this their object is that which presently pinches them you shall heare little or no aime at Christ and his sweetnesse for they regard it not The counsell is to hold them hard to the law that their soules may bee under bondage of sinne as sinne and not onely under present accusation If this prevaile not they will rush themselves quickly out of their horrors into prophanenesse more and more And had not comfort beene well bestowed upon such as need none Fifthly though thou perceive the soule to bee under bondage 5. Rule Consider whether the frame of the heart under conviction be tame or rebellious yet consider well of what frame the party is If the heart bee rebellious and that sinne doth wax more sinfull by that conviction then though it bee a good signe for time to come yet the Lord makes no haste to comfort such a one till his rebellion bee brought downe and then his heart will be doubly humbled both for guilt and rebellion also It is meete that some should lie and wait under their legall abasings because else commonly they returne to their old byas againe if they come not to see how out of measure sinfull sinne is in her nature I observe it in this age of ours that the law troubles few except some violent crosses attend it which argues that they will hardly hold humble when their troubles cease Be not too hasty therefore Sixtly when thou seest it a season to speak a word to a poore soule 6. Rule Observe due season deferre it not For there may be as great perill in delay as in rash haste And shew thy selfe as carefull and cordiall in pressing of a promise earnestly and effectually to a soule in case to receive it as thou wert backward in applying it till it was so A loaden soul is under the condition of the promise and therefore to delay such an one from it is to defraud it of her portion due to it which is a worse sinne then rashnesse even as despaire is worse then presumption To this end bee conversant with the promises and be able to apply variety of them not knowing which may prevaile If the affliction bee an holding downe of the soule from beleeving 7. Rule Whether under the condition or no what lets it or if so what hinders beleeving when as yet it is under the condition of the promise search out what the speciall stoppe of the soule is and accordingly apply remedies For instance if the soule be tossed too and fro between the condition and the performance labour to settle the heart upon the condition first proving it truly loaden and hold it there telling it that the Lord is willing that it hold that which it hath gotten and then it shall be more easie to finish the other worke If the glasse bee shaken who shall see his owne face rightly So againe if the feare be that it hath not the conditions of the Gospel or hath them not in such a measure as it ought resolve such a one that the Lord having wrought a true loading in the soule will also worke the same to the sight of ease by the promise which promise as it appeares more and more reall both in the meriter and the offerer so it must needs afford more hope more desires mournings and longings after it As for the measure of these God snares no poore soule with them Be it never so feeble and brused hee will not breake it So againe if the trouble be that it hath long waited and is weary that the heart is exceeding hard corruption very strong others are got before us we are afraid we be not elected wiih a hundred more apply the remedy thereafter And whereas the maine stoppe is Selfe and aiming at our owne ends and a dead heart to beleeve let the counsell be thereafter Subdue the base heart under meer mercy enlarge the glory of the promiser above the gaine of the beleeve Also bee well exercised in the thorow opening and urging of a promise on Gods part by enlarging the length and depth of the free full and faithfull heart of God infinitely above that which a soule can long after But if I should enter into particulars I should be endlesse 8. Rule What to doe in revolts Eightly if the trouble arise from revolts and breach of covenant after repentance first observe whether former experience of mercy have broken such an heart or no if not then endeavour to breake it and to raise up the soule from the present desertion wherein it seemes destitute of that grace which formerly it enjoyed Convince it that the Lord hath never cut off nor cast out any branch which was ever planted in him Also that by such desertions he labours to hold the heart at a deeper bay of humility Read for this Jer. 3.1 and Hosea ult when once it comes to outgrow the confusion of feare and horror which a guilty conscience hath snared it
could doe all things yet seeing the stone to be rolled away Iohn 11.22.39 where Lazarus her brother was laid cryes out Lord by this time he stincketh hee hath beene buried foure daies but her carnality and contrariety so stancke in Christs nostrills that he is faine to checke her even before he did the miracle Said not I unto thee if thou wouldest beleeve thou shouldest see the glory of God as if he had said why dost thou so crosse me in this my attempt Were it not just to deprive thee of the miracle seeing thou preferrest thy sense before my power So Peter when hee being bidden to come to Christ on the water Matth. 14.35 attempted to come and by the way funke through carnall sense which told him that the waters were not things to goe upon but the firme earth what saith our Saviour to him Oh thou of little faith Is it not all one for my power to support thee upon the waters as upon the dry land Why didst thou stagger from my word And many more might be heapt up to this purpose all to convince that although we might thinke it veniall for weake flesh to cleave to her owne carnall conceits because Gods matters exceed her much yet God having once testified his pleasure by his word lookes that flesh lay hold upon her mouth stoope to the Lord and when it doth not he may justly rebuke her As Sarah for her laughing was checked and Zachariah for his distrust Luke 1.20 was not onely so but stricken dumbe for three quarters of a yeares space and all to teach them to preferre the word before their owne sense So that even as Paul seeing Elymas to crosse his Ministery Act. 13.10 and to harden Sergius Paulus in his infidelity sets himselfe tooth and naile against him and looked stedfastly upon him saying Oh! thou full of all subtilty and mischiefe sonne of the Divell wilt thou not cease perverting the wayes of the Lord Even so the Lord seeing this sorceresse of carnall reason standing at the elbow of the soule to disswade and hold it off from beleeving doth with indignation cut her up and say Oh thou full of all venome and poyson darest thou thus pervert the truth and faithfulnesse of the promise And our Saviour did the like to Nicodemus caviling against the mystery of Regeneration and Baptisme what saith he Art thou a great Doctor in Israel Joh. 3.5 and yet such a dunce and ideot in the matters of God What a shame and as it were a box on the eare was this for such a Rabbi And although he seemed to deale somewhat more fairely with Thomas in his refractory stoutnesse of carnall reason Except I see the print of the speare in his sides and nailes in his hands I will not beleeve yet we shall see hee gave him a shrewd touch upon that mercifull conviction Be faithfull saith he not incredulous Blessed are they that see not and yet beleeve Joh. 21. I tell thee it is small thanke to thee to beleeve having seene So much for proofes Reasons of the point are many First this It is the chiefe marke of all Reason 1 other in Gods eye and a duty of the greatest import when the soule breaking through the misty aire and foggy clouds which doe beset the clearesky even as carnall reason overwhelmes the cleere promise shall pierce and behold the word in her brightnesse and true colours Oh! how it speakes to the heart of God to be trusted upon his bare word when the soule makes a tush of carnall objections and saith the word is against it Examples we have of this also in Scripture See Numb 14.5 where the ten spies bringing a verduict of sense by the terror of Anakims and chariots of iron to their brethren and dismaying their hearts from going to Canaan Lo those two worthies Caleb and Ioshua cleaving to the word made a tush at the other objections If the Lord love us say they he will bring us into this land as for these Giants they shall be but meat for us What are they to a word of an omnipotent God What came of it Surely the Lord tooke it so kindly as he scarce knew how to expresse it twice or thrice after he tells Moses Caleb and Ioshua have honoured me before this people and borne downe their wretched partners Therefore of all the rest who shall leave their bones in the wildernesse these two shall inherit this good land So David when all the body of the people were scared and ranne from the Philistin onely cryed why Who is this uncircumcised Philistin what make yee of him I make but a dead dog of him a railer upon God and his hoast 1 Sam. 17. And what came of it God enclosed him by his faith into his hands and as Heb. 11.34 he was made strong of weake and put to flight an Army by that meanes Paul also Act. 27. when all were against him both Pilate Centurion and Souldiers they all thought that there was no way for them but to perish contrary to their feares Paul is confident that not an haire of their head should fall to the ground For why Saith he although I see as much against it in shew as you doe yet an Angel of God stood by me this night and told me so and I beleeve God Oh! how did the Lord honour him with the safety of all in the ship Now to conclude if the Lords heart be so set upon beleevers How must he needs cast a sad countenance upon them that overthrow his promise and will beleeve no more then they see Contrary objects to those which are most desireable must needs be most unwelcome And if the one provoke esteeme how can it chuse but the other must cause indignation Reason 2 Secondly it must be needs a very reproveable evill which causeth such a fulsomenesse and wearisomenesse in Gods stomacke Now wee shall note it in the Scripture how loathingly God speakes of carnality and a sensuall spirit in his matters See Psal 92. The Lord tells us that he led the Israelites in the wildernesse as shepherds lead their sheepe Esay 63. and all that they might see his workes and know him and trust him the better But saith he forty yeares long have I beene vexed with this generation They have tempted me proved me and wearied me Therefore I sware in my wrath they should not enter into my rest Why Because all his miracles and deeds before their eyes could not draw them to trust him but as if heathens they would cleave still to their fleshly reason Surely he that sweares in his wrath to destroy and is vexed with people hee doth more then reprove This for the second Reason 3 Thirdly for our selves how can it bee in us but a most damnable sinne much more reproveable For as it resists the whole method of God through the whole world so it sinnes against almost every Chapter and line of
more deadly then by an ill conceit of him and his method of beleeving For wisdome is easie to him that loveth understanding if God will make it so why shouldest thou gainsay it A lowring sullen heart causeth this slavery in us wee are willing to beleeve that which we wish but looke what we have small list unto that we naturally frame to our selves very difficult Counsells against this disease Strive first to get a true judgement of the way of conversion that the Lord hath said its easie It s that which Naamans servants here labour to beat into their Master and by it prevailed with him for the obeying of the promise Next strive to get under the condition of it for all such are at next door to it To this end instead of studying thy selfe and thine owne abilities study the promise and let that draw thee to be in love with him who hath so freely offered it that will winne thy affections to it and when thy heart is taken with it thou shalt soone be on thornes to enjoy it The ease of beleeving issues from the soules getting under the condition of the promise Touching which point because it will offer it selfe in the next verse more fully I say the lesse here That which in a word I will presse here and so finish is this Resist faiths enemy which is bondage an ill opinion of God a conceit that he love our toile and vexation and nourish faiths friend which is Gods ease and that he is no hard Master no tyrant no taske-master but one that delights in a cheerfull obeyer and faith will follow sweetly God loves one that will not bee scared away with Lions and Beares but come to God for ease with assurance that its easie for him to give The cause why there is such difficulty in beleeving comes not from God but it comes from our false opinion and a strange conceit that all pretious things must bee difficult It costs the Lord exceeding paines to banish out this error which if it were once overcome it s not to be said what incredible ease would appeare Therefore let thy course poore soule be to beg of God the benefit of this ease pray to him and say If the way to heaven be of thy meer inventing if the Lord Jesus himself be thy free gift if the offer of him to a loaden heart be free and voluntary if the gift of faith it self be thine and thou hast bound thy self both to give feet to come and to give ease to the soule that commeth where lies the difficulty Surely in the slavish heart which feares where no feare is which judges of God according to her owne sense Now to sense and flesh who dare say or when did ever God say faith was easie Come to him then and importune him for this ease Lord take away my slavish heart I have wofull experience what my moyling and toyling wit and course is able to doe At the first I liked it well as mine owne strength but now I am tired with it I see it s thy plague thou givest toyle to the wicked but to the good and pleasing in thy sight ease and rest To hunt and to rost that they have got in hunting to labour moderately and to eat of the fruit thereof Oh this blessing I want Lord all the fish in the sea are at thy call thou canst in a moment gather them all together into one place Luke 5. Joh. ult Gen. 18.14 Thou canst bid Peter spread his net just where they are and enclose multitudes in it after he had fished all night and catcht nothing Alas he cast out his net on the wrong side all the while but when the Lord Jesus came then he cast on the right side and catcht abundance At thy command Lord a dead heart shall be quickned a dead wombe shall conceive a creeple of thirty eight yeares shall be healed and what hard thing hath not turned easie at thy command What was easier then to goe through the red sea first and then Jorden dryshod when thou causedst the windes to keep up the waters like two walls on both sides and to dry up the mud in the midst What is hard save because of lets And what is not easie if barres be removed Oh therefore Lord thou who by that miracle madest Peter a Preacher and gavest him a signe that he should be a fisher of men and enclose three thousand at one Sermon teach me this blessed gift make me such a Preacher of reconciliation by thy skill and ease Act. 2. And thou who broughtest all fishes under the net bee not discouraged by my shinesse feare and loathnesse to bee driven in Say but the word and I shall come under it and thy Minister shall cast out on the right side and enclose me Oh happy soule if after all my tricks and wiles to shunne thee thou shalt at the last make my will willing and cause me to come under the sweet and yet authority of thy promise I crave not Lydia's ease Zachees ease I know now thy course is more leasurely I doe not so much seeke shortnesse of labour as sweetnesse of spirit and meekenesse of heart and surenesse of successe and riddance of my basenesse and contradictions The wildernesse shall be as welcome to me as the way of the Philistins if thou wilt tame my rebellions and give me a pledge of Canaan at last The Lord will not stop his eare to such a prayer mercy pleaseth him and the ease of mercy pleaseth him what should hinder him from giving that which pleaseth him Onely our owne ease set up against his makes the way to heaven tedious if that be removed heaven will bee as easie as this cure was by washing in Jorden So much for this last Branch as also for the whole Use Vse 5 I proceed now to the fifth Use which is Admonition and Caveat viz. Admonition Wisdome is needfull to judge of the ease of grace That notwithstanding all which hath beene said about this point yet that we be wise and discreet in our judgements both concerning Gods diversity of dispensation and concerning the estates of men For the first although I have said nothing but the truth of God hitherto yet this must not breed ill bloud in us when we consider his casting off thousands yea millions of people both such as are without the pale of the Church and such as are visible members by Baptisme It may arise in the mindes of some to thinke that if the way of God were easie why should the Lord hide it from so many generations from the beginning till now for ought we know among Pagans and Infidels And why should so many among our selves after their long knowledge and use of meanes yet finde it so hard a taske and come short of it when all is done The answer whereto is That the secret waies of God are not for us to descant upon If he will
and his labour is with God if then for conscience he seekes their welfare and counts it his crowne if they obey Esay 49.4 its equall and righteous that they requite love for love duty for duty That they set his crowne upon his head by their faithfull obedience The businesse concernes themselves very sadly for the Minister preaches not comforts not exhorts not for his owne ends but for theirs If then he be for them and not himselfe shall they be able to answer it if they be not for their owne soules Alas what shall the discouragement they afford to the Minister hurt him Shall it not redound to them See Heb. 13.17 That were smally to their comfort He is from God and as in the stead of Christ doing his Embassage As Ieremy speakes to those rebells Chap. 44. Lo I am before you you may answer me as you will But know that he who sent me will not be so easily answered 2 Pet. 1.16 he will pay ye home for your rebellion If the Minister be bound to follow God and not cunning devises and fables of his own head and must give a strict account thereof to his Master Woe be to them that perceive not nor lay to heart What a solemne account will lye upon them if they dispise that message which he delivers upon such tearmes He hath saved his soule but thy bloud shall be upon thine owne head True love then is judicious see 2 Cor. 5.14 and as in all other things so in this she is loath to offer any measure to the Minister which she is loath God should offer herselfe Reason 3 Thirdly love is marveilous tender He then that loves his Minister is very sensible of that griefe and discontent which must needs smites his heart when he sees his labours slighted 1 Cor. 13. especially if he be a man wholly set to seek Gods ends in preaching A good heart will say I warrant you it stings the heart of him who teaches us soundly to behold in us slight acceptance Oh this will breed bad bloud This will load him with sorrow and he hath no whither to goe for ease but to him who set him on worke And the Lord will take his wrongs to heart and count them his owne and that will prove sad for us Oh! let us not provide so ill let us not cut downe the onely prop we stand on let us condole him in his heavinesse and remove the cause of it that so his heart being joyed may procure a good errand to heaven in our behalfe and bring downe a blessed answer from God unto us Reason 4 Fourthly love is given to esteem highly of that which it loves unites it and strengthens it selfe in the object delighted in she sets it up in her heart exceedingly and good cause why for love proceeds from some convinced amiablenesse and worth in the thing loved and that reflects backe honour and esteeme Now if it be so then love of a Minister will breed honour to him under God neither under his worth nor above it but sutable to it contrariwise if there be small or no love what will the answer be Tush what is he He is but a man as others yea and perhaps a weake one a man of passions and frailties So then marke A lovelesse heart despiseth a Minister shames him is as rottennesse to his bones thwarts the doctrine makes all that behold him in the mirror of such people to thinke they have a Minister of like disposition to themselves else for shame they would not be so base I conclude then true love will devise with her selfe what will grace and magnifie the Minister and his labours and finding that nothing will do it so much as the obeying of his voice they will force and compell themselves out of the meer nature of their love to obey him to the uttermost cost it them never so much the setting on as face answers face in water Proverb so doth the life of an hearer who loves his Minister answer his labours Love must needs destroy it selfe if it should disesteem her object therefore she honoureth that as she would support herselfe So much for Reasons This point first affords Terror to all basely minded men who live Vse 1 in the utter hatred and scorne of their Ministers thwarting Terror Two or three Branches vexing and crossing them to the uttermost in stead of obeying Such as Jer. 44.16 openly tell him The word of God which thou spakest unto us we will not heare it Such as live at open defiance with the Minister asking Shall this fellow reigne over us No Shall we be tyed to his girdle We scorne it Let us cast his cords from us Psal 2.12 What Lord shall controll us Our tongues our spirits and wayes are our owne Shall he teach us to marry to buy sell keep company use our liberties Shall he come among us to forestall our pleasures our wills and lusts They that live at open defiance with their Ministers are odious Cannot wee tell as well as he what is good for us He serves us and lives upon us and shall we maintaine our servant to be in our tops Oh base wretch He is thy servant for thy good but made so by God not a slave but a free honourable Minister of reconciliation not to serve thy humours but to controll them And as I said before then they will runne and ride and lay their purses together nay set on all the mastives of the Country against them to worry them out But oh wofull creatures Reproach of Ministers shame and spots of assemblies you need not to hunt them out Read but that in Mica 2.6.7 and there you shall finde God himself will doe it for you You say prophesie not But I say Ezek. 3.26 they shall not prophesie unto such lest they take shame I will not suffer their faces to be covered with such confusion as to be plagued with such I will rid them from among such and carry them to a people that love them As for these haters of them when as once their shepheards are gone I will come in among them and worry them that worried these And I will let in a flood upon them of woe when my Noa's are taken into mine Arke That which they sought for revenge of my Minister I will inflict as a revenge upon them and when they see themselves left to be consumed by those lusts of theirs which they scorned to be rooted out by him then they shall roare for very anguish some here under penury rags shame diseases and impenitency some in hell but then one houre of a faithfull Minister shall not be given them if they had the world to give for it Beware lest seeing the fearefull examples of vengeance in Scripture for contempt of the Minister besides daily experience of the sudden end of scorners and persecutors will not draw you from your trade God make you examples for
known some loose professors who have sought to exceed all other their neighbours in the love of a godly Preacher and who but they in their running riding assisting of him They have been as his right hand of trust and service But lo in a short time these fellows bewray that which lay secret to wit an uncleane covetous voluptuous heart and what then Surely all men see evidently that these clave to the Minister for their owne base ends and to conceale their vices A speciall watchword to all Ministers of God to beware how farre they engage themselves in the love of any professors A caveat to Ministers See Joh. 2.24.25 Ministers reproach themselves in ascribing too much and trusting too far such as they know not who make toward them in speciall relation Try them throughly in their obedience as well as their pretended love or else the time may come when as their basenesse shall discredit your persons and Ministery farre more then all their love could prevaile If when all is done they are so subtill that we cannot espy them the sinne shall be theirs wee have saved our owne soules and may wash our hands in innocency because we have done our duties When all is done therefore this will hold water if we obey Heb. 13. So saith the Apostle Obey them that are set over you And Paul I beare you witnesse you obeyed the forme of doctrine delivered unto you And againe you received our doctrine not as the word of man but as the word of God Every good hearer should say to his Minister as Elisha did to Gehazi 2 King 5. end Went not thy spirit with me when I ranne after the man So did not the spirit of my faithfull Pastor goe with me when I was in such a company recreation or worldly businesse Me thought it curbed me from lightnesse and vanity from deceit from sinning in my tongue or in any disguisement of intemperancy or cousenage or covetousnes to think if he now saw me how should I be ashamed to do thus Oh! he loves me tenderly my souls welfare and should I grieve him thus 2 Cor. 3.2 This is indeed to be the Epistle of the Minister written in our hearts approving our love unto him to purpose Not that there is not a stronger motive then this to awe and draw people from good to evill for there is an holy Spirit of annointing which is given to all good ones which hath shed the love of Christ into their hearts and filled them with the length and bredth of it this should hem in the soules of beleevers for so the word is 2 Cor. 5.7 and compell them to watch over themselves This must bee the chiefe Monitor in the Schoole of Christ If the voice of this great Prophet be not obeyed for it selfe the voice of the servant as he is called Esay 50. will be little worth For what wonder if they disobeyed the voice of Moses the messenger of God Heb. 2.2.3 who rebelled against that holy Spirit which set him on worke and vexed it all those forty yeares as it is Esay 63.11 No it must be the spirit of the Master which must make his Steward esteemed The love of the Lord Jesus must make the love of the Minister compulsive else it will prove nothing but slavish feare or to avoid base shame as we see in many a drunkard or swearer who for the presence sake of a sinfull man will for an houre or two bite in their qualities which yet they tremble not to commit in the presence of God all the yeare long Conclude this point then and say I pretend love to my Minister how shall I demonstrate it really As Cornelius did Act. 10. It s said he fell downe and tooke Peter by the feet in token of excessive love and respect But what was this all No surely But this that he tells him They were all ready to hearken to whatsoever the Lord said unto them by him This was a sure marke love and feare make reverence and thence comes obedience When love is solid it workes by feare and causes a loathnesse to doe any thing which might grieve the Minister it sits like Mary at the feet of the Minister ready to obey And that not onely in slight matters to remove some sinne which may be spared 1 Sam. 15. as Saul that killed the leane cattell and the baser sort of Amalek but even the belovedst lust and most pretious vice even the fat cattell and the King himselfe True love abhorres common evidence its painfull it will be singular and aske Matth. 5.47 Joh. 21. what singular thing doe I to approve my love When our Saviour would try Peters love he askes him Lovest thou me more then these As some think he meant of his nets occupation as others of his fellow Apostles Both will do well Love thy Minister by obeying more then others yea love him more then thy nets thy beloved trade thy lusts which bring thee in the greatest gaine thy sweet usury thy gaming thy deceit which others who love him not would as soone lose their lives as forgoe The forfeit of these will import strongly that thou lovest not him for any by respect but as he is a Minister of God I remember a story of Pope Pius the fifth one that was reputed as humble as a proud Pope might be who being told of a base fellow that had much abused him in a Pasquill answered I sustaine two persons one of a poore Monk another of Christs Vicar if thou hast railed upon me as a Monk I pardon thee if as Pope I must punish thee So there is no true Minister of Christ who lookes at himselfe as a man but at the honour of him whose servant he is and to whom he desires all the peoples obedience should be derived Try therefore whether thy lusts can draw thee stronglier then he if two loadstones draw both together the iron will goe to the strongest So let thy love goe to him from thy lust Fleire not in his face nor beare him faire in hand when as yet thine heart goes another way Doe nothing behinde his backe which thou wouldest not doe before him In all thy doubtfull matters consult with him let him come within thy bosome know thy secrets and hide nothing from him wherein he can informe thee for he is for God and Christ 1 Cor. 5.20 as a faithfull Embassadour for thy good Doth he tell thee O my friend I perceive your zeale quales shrewdly in this Laodicean age you heare oft but sleep much at Sermons you jangle so much of earthly businesse upon the Sabbath that I feare you meditate little Or you are zealous but you grow not in knowledge wisdome tendernesse to manage your zeal aright from rashnesse and censoriousnes Or you are noted to be full of words or a busie body Or you are given to flout and jeere when you are in company Or you are bold to
persons disdained not to learne of so poore a counsellour what should such as wee doe who are yet as much more stout then they as they were wiser then wee are And so much for this poynt Doct. Another poynt offers it selfe from hence also and that from the order of his obeying The Text telles us Then hee went and dipped himselfe When I pray you Surely when his stomack was brought down and sunk in him then hee went dipped himselfe in Jorden when that which all this while letted was removed then did he obey believe and doe as he was bidden and that in a moment The poynt is very speciall to prepare us to the poynt following for it acquaints us with a main barre and stop which lies in the Preachers way and the Spirits way to wit a rebellious and selfe-conceited heart and with that which makes easie and sweet that is an heart convinced and yeelding to the Word No man I suppose will expect me to be large in much opening of this disease for I have spent many Sermons in the handling of Self Self-love carnall Reason Rebellion and coy Pride in Naaman when I went over the 11. verse Now I take all that for granted and from the issue of the Lords working thus long upon Naaman his humbling of him to the command Humility alway goes before grace compared with the effect of his obeying I would present unto your eye this poynt That alway when the Lord means to create faith in the soule he doth immediatly put an end to all that stoutnesse of spirit that hindred the same The poynt is cleare No sooner had the Lord emptied Naaman here of his opposing heart but immediatly followes his obeying the charge So true is that golden speech of Ieremy Jer. 31.18.19 I heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as an Heyfer unaccustomed to the yoke Surely after that I was turned I repented and after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed and confounded because I did beare the shame of my youth The summe of the words is That all the while that Ephraim was proud and wilfull no grace would enter into him But as soone as the Lord thawed his spirit and made him humble lo hee presently submitted and bare Gods yoke with meeknesse and obedience Prophets there were before who did beat upon him and tozed him with rebukes and terrors but alas they were but as the blowes of the Smith upon his Anvill which is the more hardned But at last God cast into his heart a secret thought of his long rebellion and how little good it had done him then by and by hee listned and smote upon his thigh and repented Even so all the day long sayth the Lord by Esay Chap. 52. ult have I stretched out mine arme to a people in vaine None hath beleeved my report the word of God is revealed to none Why Hee addes because it is a stiff-necked and a gain-saying people q. d. But for this they had beleeved long agoe This is that which elsewhere the Prophet foretels under the Gospell that such as should bee converted unto God Esay 2.4 Esay 2.12.17 should turne their Swords into Mattockes and their Speares into Sythes that is of warlicke and turbulent ones become peaceable Husband-men and Inhabitants The Aspe shall suffer the young childe to play at the hole of the Aspe and the Lyon shall feed with the Lamb and the Beare with the Bullocke meaning the savage and wilde dispositions of men should turn meek and tractable Iob in one place brings in the Lord asking this question Job 39.5 Wilt thou tye the Unicorne to the furrow or wilt thou make the wilde Asse feed at thy Crib q. d. No their nature is unbroken thy Oxe and thy Horse are fittest for that whom thou hast tamed to the worke Even so assure thy selfe the Divell and Christ Light and Darknesse may as soon comply as a stout rebellious heart and grace Rebellion and Unbeliefe yoke together so doe Selfe-deniall and meeknesse of Spirit with faith and obedience As while the sinewes of mans heart is of Iron the Lords heaven is Brasse so when the soul begins to melt the Lord begins to turne and convert it It is with the soule in this kinde contrary to that it was with them in Acts 27. If these goe out of the ship it must needs miscarry But if pride and rebellion abide in the heart no grace will grow the man must perish Ottomans horse they sayd wheresoever he became made the grasse that it could not grow so doth a stout heart keep grace from the heart There is a secret intelligence between hell and a proud spirit And contrarily there is an entercourse between an humble heart and heaven Hosee in one place tells us Hos 2.21 That the Lord would speake to the heavens and they should heare the earth with rains and then the earth should heare man with fruits So first heaven must grant the heart tendernesse and relenting and then that will heare the Lord commanding and promising The windes being very loud the aire is dry but if they be downe then presently we have store of raine See that 1. King 19.12 So is it here when the tempests and stormes of the heart bee up whether in morall sinnes against the Law or spirituall rebellion against the Gospell there is no obedience but if they be downe never so little the clouds will follow after raine that is faith and obedience will ensue Prov. 15. ult The feare of the Lord is instruction and wisedome And before honour goeth humility Whom shall I teach Doctrine Esay 28.7.8 Even him that is weaned from the Milke and drawne from the Breasts The sweet milke of the breasts of Selfe and carnall Wisedome are alway opposite to the wisedome of God Sacrifices thou wouldest not but an eare thou hast boared Why That I might doe thy will O God who before did mine owne Vse 1 For briefe use First it is instruction to put us out of question why an heart of unbeliefe hath so long pestered the most of our hearers Instruction Why the most hearers are pestered with unbeliefe Because the heart was never brought down and why the Lords perswasions have so little prevailed to make us believe Surely if you doubt as I feare few need to doe the enemy is this wicked Haman of a rebellious heart Perhaps some of you are of another minde because you can so colour and crust over this sore with courtesie and good words but the truth of it is There is an heart within big and high and stout This is the Camell which suffers not the soule to goe through the needles eye Somewhat is the cause why the felon upon the hand swells it is an humor which is not yet let out if that were out the felnesse would cease Enquire and consult either a cursed heart will keep some base lust
and Divellish But as for nourishing this naughtinesse in your selves and stifnesse in it to keep your fashions attires to speake your owne words as if no Lord should controll you Oh! how horrible is it Shall God beare your name and be as your husband but you will eate your owne bread weare your owne cloath and be at your own hand and finding as those women in Esay speak Esay 4.1 Then surely you must bee content to live upon your own wages and so lâ—e downe in sorrow Vse 3 Thirdly This is terror Terror to all openly proud scornfull and prophane persons who proclaime their sinne as Sodome whose hearts cast up mire and dirt like the raging Sea Esay 57.21 Those carry themselves aloft and live at the full height of a bigge and high heart without any sense of their danger Such as maintaine this rotten principle It is good to be some body in the view of men because as a man thinkes of himselfe Jam. 4.7 so will others thinke of us Which as it is false for God resists the proud crosses them so what if it were true Surely so long as my doctrine continues good there is no possibilitie for thee to obtaine grace and obedience while this spirit lasts Naaman was a great one Proud hearts terâ—ified by Gods resisting might as much stand upon it as thou yet till his stomack came downe the word of his cure was not beleeved hee was a Leper still so art thou and worse in Gods sight so long as thy lofty heart dwells in thee thy high thoughts of thy selfe cause mean thoughts of God contempt of his word and disdaine to bee a captive to Gods truths Nay it takes away all capablenesse judicious discerning remembring affecting applying or practising of any thing thou hearest save to pride thy selfe in thy knowledge and to strengthen thy selfe in a rotten peace Jerem. 48.11.29 Alas as the Prophet describes Moab that she was very proud shee had not beene rolled about and therefore was setled upon her dregges her sent still abode in her so is it with every proud wretch his own savour is in him still he is as he was as you leave him so you finde him a proud wretch rolling up and down upon his own hinges As for suspecting all is not well or laying any thing to heart hee is farre from it No winde shakes his corne he applauds himselfe in his owne conceit and saith I shall have peace though I walke in the stubbornesse of mine owne heart Mark how carelesse pride is But what comes of it Doth he meet with any grace in such a condition No the Lord will set himselfe against such a sturdy wretch Deut. 29.15.16 breake his iron sinew and the staffe of his pride the wrath of God shall smoke against him and resist him till his heart feele it and desist from fighting against God And surely if such finde small favour with men save from teeth outward they finde much lesse from God Should not this scare every such man out of himselfe saying The more I magnifie my selfe the more God vilifies me I see it hard to curb pride but it is harder to endure wrath and to be cast out from God who counts none pretious but such as count themselves vile Beware of it then the sin it selfe is sad but that it should be the canker that should eate out the foyson of grace and destroy all my hearings and make my devotions as odious as the cutting off a dogges neck Oh! this consequence of the sin is worse then the sinne it selfe Many sinnes are worse in their fruit then in themselves and this is one of them And to touch the particular of Naamans sinne here which was blustering at the Prophet and cavilling against his message we see here how God abased this spirit in him ere ever he could obey But when that was gone then the other succeeded And so I say to all proud cavillers The terror urged here is terror for them While cavilling lasts no grace enters Looke upon this patterne all you cavillers and see God branding you with a gracelesse heart as long as this humour lasts I have noted the end of such as have vented their pride in cavilling and picking knots with the Minister and his doctrine such as cannot receive or stand under a solid and sad truth with a meek heart and I never saw such come to good God hath betrayed them to shame and ill report Their knowledge hath puft them up They have some growne Alehouse-Keepers and haunters embraced the world fallen out with their brethren and forsaken their fellowship been foully tainted with grosse evils uncleannes the world contention censoriousnesse uncharitablenesse Some have proved Brownists Poynters Schismatickes and Libertines and lost their honour with God and his Church If there bee any drop of humility in you let this affright you lay downe the bucklers and as you have been proud so now be humble Say not with Gardiner I revolted with Peter but I have not repented with Peter but with this poore Proselyte Naaman I have been as stout and proud as he and now behold I repent and am humble as he Lord give me grace as thou gavest him Oh! the servants of Naaman had little cause to repent them of their counsell when such an effect followed Neither should I of mine if I could prevaile as they did God grant you and mee this grace The fourth and last use shall be exhortation to us all Exhortation and comfort to humble soules to embrace this Vse 4 grace of a subject humble spirit Oh! it is the messenger of mercy and mercy followes her at the heeles Selfe-deniall and an humbled soule are speciall ingredients of this receit of Mercy and faith to apply it When the soule is full of her owne it is empty of Gods hee counts all grace put into such a soule as water put into a top-full vessell The empty the bare the naked and poore soule is that wherewith he will betrust his grace Jâ—mes 4.7 be earnest for this as you would have faith herselfe 1 Cor. 25. As Paul calles death the last enemy which must be subdued ere we have glory so may I say that a proud selfe-sufficient heart is the last enemy which must be cast out ere we can come by any grace It is the last brat of the house which goes out The onely vice which keepes possession for old Adam to keep out Christ When wee see Gods tokens Simile we count the plague incurable and when mercy cannot conquer a rebellious heart it is past all remedy And contrariwise here is comfort to all such as are thus tamed by God they are brought to the bent of his bow I may say to thee as Martha to her sister Mary Thy Lord is come and calleth for thee And as our Lord Jesus himselfe said to Zacheus This day salvation is come unto thy house
in as much as thou art become a sonne of Abraham Luke 19.7 Thy Regions are white unto harvest thy staffe stands next doore to grace and thy redemption is neer nay the day of the Lords redeemed is come Esay 63.4 Oh! thou mayst lift up thy heart unto God and say How is it that the Messenger of the Lord is come unto me Lo on the sudden I feele mine heart so strangely thawed and teachable over it was wont to be that I can give no reason of except the Lord meanes to save me I therefore interpret it as a signe of favour yea thou mayst be sure of it and therefore repent thee not of all thy paines which thou hast taken for it seeing thy reward will abundantly answer thy travaile And so much briefly may serve to have said of this use and of the Doctrine The chiefe doctrine of the whole verse opened at large I hasten now to the point it selfe of Naamans obedience The greatest and chiefest of all other which I aimed at in the handling of this Scripture Then saith the Text hee went and washed himselfe seven times in Iorden What was this A common act as others were No other then the former to come out of Aram to goe to the King of Israel or to stand at the doore of Elisha Oh yes those were his own this is Gods those he made no bones of but this was that which had made all this pudder it was the Lords owne way and device for the triall of his faith in the miracle and the subduing his heart to the naked obedience unto him And lo now his stomacke is come downe the let is removed and therefore he doth as he is bidden and goeth and washeth seven times in Jorden Marke the point it will cost us some time to handle Doctrine The point is Every one who is able to prove himselfe Every soule within the condition of mercy ought to beleeve within the condition of the promise may and ought to cast himselfe upon it obey the command of God and beleeve For the proofe of the point it will be expedient that first we cleare the ground of it out of the example of Naaman in generall and then by some evident texts of Scriptures with a briefe reason or two And having so done we will proceed to the explication of the contents of the Doctrine For the generall correspondence of Naamans case with this point some may doubt how it may be said of an Heathen in the point of curing of a bodily disease how he can be said to bee under the condition of a promise and so to believe For answer Answer whereof I say as before that although the worke of grace were a stranger unto him in respect of his owne feeling untill the time that the Lord wrought indeed grace in his heart yet forasmuch as the Lord over-ruled all the occurrents in the businesse by his owne hand for the effecting of that which he intended and swayed his heart to those preparations which were fit to lead to such an effect Therefore I do not see why on Gods behalfe those severall dispositions which were in Naaman may not be proportionable unto those which are wrought in such as are converted to God That Naaman was truly brought home to God besides the sequell in the Chapter mee thinkes this is sufficient that not onely God would chuse him as the onely Leper whom Elisha should heale but also would order the circumstances thereof in so set and solemne a manner that all men may behold a gracious worke as well as a miraculous For I demand what should need so many interruptions and defeats in the miracle such a trying and searching of a mans Spirit and such a purposed drawing of him to see more then an externall hand in the thing except more then an outward cure had beene intended by God A very small and short matter might else have been made of it if the Prophet had been used onely to heale his body and as Naaman thought the bare comming out and laying his hand on or speaking two or three words might have served the turne But now the Prophet must not bee seen Naamans weaknesse must be discovered to himselfe and hence it appeares that the Lord would have his Spirit and Soule acquainted with God as well as his outward man So much for the answer of the doubt And so I come to shew what conditions were wrought in Naaman before his cure and then how his obedience must be an act of faith issuing thereupon respiting proofes and reasons till the Doctrine be suted to the Text till which it will not be seasonable to settle it upon her bottome But this wee will referre to the next Lecture THE SEVENTEENTH LECTVRE upon the fourteenth VERSE VERSE XIV Then he went downe and washed himselfe seven times in Iorden and his flesh came againe as the flesh of a little child and he was cleane I Having shewed you beloved in the end of the former Exercise that Naamans example may wel yeeld us the consideration under our hand referred the particulars unto this Sermon Naaman then may be conceived under the condition of mercy in the purpose of God sundry wayes In respect of the order that God tooke with him both in preventing him and assisting him before the cure In the former we saw how the Lord by a bodily disease made him in the generall case of one needing ease for he abased his person in the midst of sundry other happinesses with the noysome disease of Leprosie which was in it selfe a marvellous yoke and as God guided it a very pinching one unto him burdening him more then in a common manner How Naaman was under the condition of of cure If this had not been the first ground of the worke had been removed Next hereto the Lord prevents him very sweetly with the newes of one who in such a desperate case is credibly reported unto him to be a man like to heale him and this comes to him by a speciall providence appointing a skirmish between Aram and Israel wherein a Damosell might be taken prisoner and such a one one of a thousand who had taken notice of Elishâ—'s worth in this kinde and this being by Naaman apprehended tooke off utter despaire of incurablenesse and put him into some hope of a possible cure Thirdly hereupon he slackens no time but addresses himselfe in the best manner to use the most apt and likely meanes for the commending of his businesse to the Prophet and for the bringing of him to the speech of the Prophet having no doubt a speciall desire to obtaine that really whereof hee saw possibility before Fourthly by his travell and furnishing himselfe with gifts attendance comming to the King of Israel with his message wherein he was greatly defeated he is by the Lord so mercifully assisted that he ceased not till by the Prophets owne intimation and further light and assurance not only
how great shall the honour of beleevers be then when it shall be some addition to Gods own glory that he hath made them such Can God be admired in the choyce gifts of Bezaleel and Aholiab Exod. 36.1 but they must needs be glorious who enjoy them Oh! then it will be the chiefest honour to be a beleever then shall it not repent them of any pains they have taken that they have set to their seale that God is true Then shall they shine as the starres who have converted others Dan. 12.3 and have beene converted themselves Then shall it appeare who are Gods off-spring borne of God 1 Pet. 1. having his seed in them Kings and Priests to God His Jewels his peculiar ones and Favourites Doe yee not see how a Prince is admired who weares a Jewell of peerlesse price upon his hat or in his ring Shall a Jewell grace a man and shall not they bee glorious from whom God receives a kinde of grace Tell me whether it were better for us to be these persons or with the multitude of wicked ones to be dazled with their beauty in that day and to gnaw and bite their tongues for very anguish that they had not the grace to beleeve the word in season 4. Motive God shall come in vengeance against unbeleevers Fourthly then shall the Lord come in treble vengeance against all that know not God nor obeyed his Gospel who put away the Promise from them in a scorne and made a mocke at his threats who said to God Depart from us Where is now that tongue of yours which said 2 Pet. 3. Where is the promise of his comming Come let us see this day of the Lord. It shall be a blacke day to you and you shall wish it as farre off then as neere before For then shall the Lord set the true colours upon every sinne and the most terrible upon this No Thiefe no Harlot shall looke so grisely so gastly as an unbeliever Hell shall be heat thrice hotter then Nebuchadnezzars furnace for all such There the Sonne of God walked but here they suffer Amos 5.18 who have trod under foot the blood of the Covenant and counted it an unholy thing and unworthy of them The Gospell is hid to none Heb. 10.29 but such as perish This is that condemnation Joh. 3.19 They are condemned already and the wrath of God abides upon them in right but there it shall cease and take full possession They have despised the remedy and cast the potion of their recovery against the walles They shall not resist the quashing force of this rocke falling upon them Luke 20.17 and grinding them to powder This sinne opposes God in all that in which he sought honour to himselfe and therefore how terrible will hee bee in revenging himselfe How fearfull will it bee to see men condemned even by him who yet is the Judge of Gods Chancery God hath no quarrell with men like to the quarrell of his Covenant Levit. 26.25 When they goe contrary to God in this kinde hee will goe contrary to them and avenge them when hee avoucheth them to bee his redeemed ones in the blood of the Covenant Deut 26.17 and himselfe to bee their God all-sufficient and that freely being enemies and traytors and they shall disavow him and tell him to his face that he is a lyar 1 John 5 10. meaning nothing lesse and his Ministers to beare false witnesse of him when he bids them lay down their weapons and come in 1 Cor. 15.15 and hee will pardon their rebellions yet they wilfully persist in bearing Armes against him what possible way can there be of reconciliation When tender mercies are rejected what is to looked for but jealousie burning to hell Shall a second blood of God bee shed for such as have despised the former If they who despise Moses Law Heb. 2.2.3 are put to death under two or three witnesses how shall they escape who despise so great salvation Fifthly that is to bee highly esteemed and ensued 5. Motive Faith is a rare Jewell 2 Thess 3.2 which is so rare a commodity and to be found in so few hands a flower that growes in so few Gardens But Faith is such an one 2 Thess 3.2 Faith is not of all nay the portion of very few Every one seekes to ingrosse rich wares that they may raise the market at their pleasures for their owne gaine But the Royall Merchant of this Pearle beyond price may well goe alone for there bee few who will goe to the price of his Pearle Oh! if the paucity of Beleevers or rarity of Faith or scantnesse either of such as preach it or hearken after it might perswade this reason might strongly as a Load-stone draw us to beleeve Such as remaine not prophane yet rest themselves in a forme of godlinesse keep under the line and subsist in a dangerous degree to faith-ward but dare not resigne up themselves to the promise When it should come to this point they make sure of some faire retreat or other for themselves And when this fruit should come to the birth there is no strength to bring forth and so they faile of the grace of God and dye in that state All that is in request with men is how they may get to heaven with most ease Esay 37.3 and rid their hands of this trouble of selfe-deniall and selfe-resigning to God They will not put themselves out of their owne power nor clearly discharge themselves of all weights which hang on and presse downe in this kinde and therefore justly may that be mens ruine which they preferre before mercy that is vanity pleasure sloth and ease Let us then be of those few that beleeve and not of the world of unbeleevers 6. Motive No riddance of our distempers till we beleeve Lastly let this prevaile that untill thou beleevest and drownest thy distempers in the promise thou shalt never be rid of them Thy staggerings feares and disquietnesse of thoughts thine hard heart thine impatience thy old corruptions yea Satan with seven worse spirits will returne and enthrall thee more desperately then ever before Thou canst have no security from them otherwise but a truce onely which will end in worse warre All thy hearings prayers hopes duties will be forfeit and perish Matth. 12. And were not this lamentable Especially for such as have been so faire for faith swet for it as 2 Joh. 8. to lose their reward for adding a little more soundnesse of heart to their former knowledge and affections Is it not a sad sight to see one to make shipwrack in the haven Who would not pitty himselfe for such folly Who would lay egges in the sand to bee troden by beasts Job 39.14 except a foole bereft of understanding Satan will not give thee over but sift thee throughly If there be no faith in thee there is no difference betweene thee and
is one Heb. 4.13 to whom all things are open and manifest his word is quicke and as a two edged spirit dividing betweene the soule and spirit the joints and marrow the thoughts and intents of the heart Dally not therfore with him It s fearfull to fall into his hands He will not spare us but will punish our sins And Heb. 10.31 if we call him father who judgeth without respect of persons 1. Pet. 1.17 passe we the whole time of our dwelling here in feare For our God is a consuming fire This in generall In speciall The command of the Gospell to beleeve in Christ is most solemnly to be â—beyed make conscience of the most solemne command of the Gospel to beleeve in the Lord Jesus close with this command It is the most soveraigne and indispensable of all other Obey this and obey all for in this stands the obedience to all the rest The Lord hath ingaged all his glory and honour upon this one That the most vile miserable sinner living who is willing to come in with his load pinching him to hell shall finde ease Whether it seeme so or no this is the truth he hath purposed to magnifie all his Attributes in shewing mercy to such an one He will have it knowne that he can doe that which flesh cannot even love the most hatefull enemy in the world that is weary of his enmity This he hath set down with himselfe from eternity in time hath declared it to his Church by giving his justice a full discharge in the blood of his Sonne Hee is the upshot of promises and therfore looks that he be beleeved yea for a recompence hereof that he hath made all Yea and Amen in him 2 Cor. 1.20 Joh. 3.33 he desires but to be beleeved counting them that doe so to seale that he is true and calling the rest lyers Consult not now with flesh and reason Say not that this word is farre from thee Rom. 10.8 it is neere thee it is offered and pin'd to thy sleeve Esay 1. Luke 5.7 that thou mightst beleeve it consent and obey this and the worst is past As Peter sayd to Christ At thy command I will cast in though I have cast all night and catcht nothing So say thou I have long traded with mine owne inventions devotions and duties but now at thy command I will try what thy promise is worth and cast my selfe wholly upon it for pardon grace and life If I perish I perish Venture so and prosper Secondly proceed to other commands The same Lord of commands bids us love one another for love fulfilleth the Law Joh. 14. Jam. 3. 1 Tim. 1. All other commands issue from faith the end thereof being love out of a pure and good conscience and love unfained Feare this command also The person of man who is thy immediate object of love may perhaps seeme contemptible to thee for what can he doe unto thee whether thou love or love not But he that made thee and him too and hath planted you both in the body of his Church under Christ the head he it is who bids thee love thy neighbour love him by reproofe and murther him not love him by counsell example admonition compassion lowre not upon him curb selfe-love passion indignation wrath envie revenge slighting of him disdaining him Thinke with thy selfe it is not for nought that all the commands are said to bee done in this one of Love Thinke not that all shall be well if thou canst but beleeve in Christ Matth. 25. know that the Lord Jesus himselfe who will call for faith at his comming Luke 18.8 will call for love also The want of love and the due carriage of thy heart toward others is a spirituall solemne command of the Gospel as well as faith and one day will appeare to be so when God shall call thee to the Barre and convince thee how little fruit of love hath ever proceeded from thee Therefore close with this charge also look not upon man but upon that God who hath bound thee to him by this chain of love and who will hold himselfe wronged in the violation of it lay a more solemne charge upon thy spirit in this kinde then ever and feele thy soule to lye under the authority of this command as well as the former And what more should I say From these two well-springs proceed all the streames of Commands concerning God Man and thy selfe Hence issueth a Command of a close keeping the Sabbath ordering thy conversation aright Eph. 5.15 Jam. 1. ult hence comes that charge of walking circumspectly as wise keeping thy selfe unspotted of the world Hence it is that thou art forbidden to have thy course in covetousnesse to have any fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darknesse Hence also it is that thou art bidden Redeeme the season Heb. 13.5 Eph. 5.11.16 Mat. 16.26 1 Pet. 3.9 Walke wisely toward them who are without To take up thy crosse daily to deny thy selfe to live by faith to sanctifie God in thine heart and make him thy feare And the like I might say of the rest for it were endlesse to speake of all Conceive of them all as comming from one rule of righteousnesse And know it hee that requires one urges all Perhaps thou wouldst thinke it equall to obey the Magistrate obey thy Parents keep the Sabbath but know it the same God commands thee to preach in season and our to execute the righteous judgements of God to be subject to thy husband to teach thy children the feare of God These are speciall ones and lesse welcome but if thou obey not them thou doest but play fast and loose with God in the generals For all sound obedience to God is equall and uniforme I know what flesh will say T is tedious to be so tied and tasked to be held to it from day to day never out say not I could be content to fast and pray one day to redeeme liberty for many I could walk close for a Sabbath so I might be mine owne man all the weeke But know that the law of love takes no thought for continuance it is no violent compulsion as a slave to ply his worke but as naturall as for the fire to burne or the sparkes to flye upward Let the Law bee once written in thy heart Jer. 31.31 and it will teach thee holy wisedome love and delight to accommodate and apt thy selfe to each one in speciall equally and constantly Simile The Law and Art of musick in the minde acts the fingers ends to such a nimblenesse and presentnesse of service as is admirable And if the writing of letters and characters upon Fringes and Frontlets were so powerfull as to prompt a man to the obedience of each occasion what then is the law of grace written in each faculty of the minde and will in the reines and the spirit of the Soule But here I cease
Terror Hypocrites who rush upon promises ere they be fitted for them reproved who boast themselves of faith in the promise having yet no right to a promise Promises if aright beleeved must be beleeved according to their order not contrary thereto and against the edge thereof Ah poore creatures and raw beleevers Did you ever come under the condition of faith Were you ever in a strait and at a deadly losse for want of a promise Were you not alway beleevers from the first till now Yes surely you never came under the Law to drive you to a promise and to make it sweet to your taste drinke to one a thirst Therefore you dream of promises like brainsick folke Simil. Once a phantastick fellow standing upon a Tower would needs have men to beleeve that each ship comming up the channell was his owne whereas it was neither so nor so Even so doe these But know it you have neither part nor fellowship in this businesse of promises We have a rule in Physicke that humours must not be raw but met and digested ere they can be purged else physicke scatters them rather into the parts of the body then expells them But if they be once setled physicke will purge them So say I to these your lusts are violent fierce not brought to an head but by the conviction of conscience and the spirit of bondage if they were then perhaps the promise being applied in season might purge them out but else the promise is ranke bane unto you and would rather disperse your lusts make you more jolly mad resolute in sinning without feare or remorse then rid your soules of them Promises breed either the best bloud in mens souls or worst if kindly appiled according as the truth is in Jesus when the sad Schoole-master of Rebells hath once sent them to Christ they breed the best settle the soule produce faith and cleanse the conscience But when they are catcht at by bold and presumptuous ones who although there be but three saved yet looke to be of them they breed the worst bloud of all even the bloud of impudent secure presumption Therefore away from promises all such hands off be affraid to mix with them Gold will not unite with drosse nor promises with you rather goe to the terrors of God which may like darts smite through the dead loines of your soules to tame you and prepare you for purging Goe to Iohn Baptist first to cast downe every high hill to fill every valley and fit you for the King of heavens free passage upon your hearts and then shall you perhaps see what a promise meanes till then you sleep under the hatches dangerously till you be throwne into the storme of wrath which yet will not cease then neither Oh ye proud Pharisees Papists Pelagians what have you to doe with promises As he said to them so say I to you Matth. 3.7 what doe you here Who taught you to escape vengeance to come You are the vipers who fret in sunder this wombe of promises Can you indeed doe as you say that is fulfill and more then fulfill the Law can ye merit and supererogate Surely then promises and you accord not your righteousnesse hath destroyed the righteousnesse of God As for promises and Christ himselfe you make him but a stalking horse to a proud heart and as a stirrop to get up into your owne sadle when you have tired your selves in your owne wayes and wearied your selves in your error compassing your selves with your owne sparkles this is the portion which God gives you Esay 50. ult even to sinke in your owne sweat and to lye down in sorrow Behold all you that venture upon a promise in this pickle wonder and vanish for you shall not beleeve the promise though a man of a thousand should declare it unto you Act. 13.38.39 That Doctrine that belongs to you is a doctrine of despaire in your selves for your stout hearts and standing out with God This Word must first cast downe all high thoughts and make you calme 2 Cor. 12.4 ere ever the doctrine of a promise can finde entrance into you What have you to doe with peace and promises Turne behinde Iehu the furious marcher 2 King 9.22 arm'd with the revenge of God to humble your soules So much for this And thirdly lest I should forget it let this be terror to that generation Branch 3 of Rome who make no bones of the Lords promises Of terror Popish abusers of promises terrified but devoure them all whole without scruple Who can read those usurpations of the Romish Whore and impudent claiming of promises even the choycest of all which the Word containes for the comfort of the true Spouse of Christ in all her turmoyles under her malicious enemies Dare they who are the tyrants lay claime to the promises which onely belong to the innocent Saints The persecutors themselves to the promises of the persecuted members An harlot to the promises of the chaste Matrone When that wofull Gregory the Pope called Hil debrand or Brand de Hell trode upon the necke of good Henry the fourth Emperour he used these words Psal 90.11 Thou shalt trample upon the Serpent and Cockatrice and tread upon the Lion and Dragon Can any modest eare heare such abuse of promises I speake not onely for the malitiousnesse of calling a Lamb a Lion and Dragon but the prophane arrogating of such a promise to himselfe who indeed was one egge of this Aspe and Serpent whom Christ shall crush and destroy But who wonders at this in him Who takes upon him to make Scripture and marre it at his pleasure So he takes that promise to himselfe Psal 2.8 I will give thee the Nations for thine Heritage and the Gentiles for thy Possession And thus he defends his unlimited jurisdiction And againe The wicked shall hoord up treasure but the righteous shall possesse it Job 27.16 This serves his turn for his raking in of Treasure So againe I will give thee the Keyes of the Kingdome Matth. 18. This for the pardoning of sinne He might as well take one promise from the Divell as abuse so many of Gods Behold all the Kingdomes of the world they are all mine and I wil give them thee if thou wilt worship me Sure I am of all other promises this most fitly belongs to him upon the condition But as for all other Oh wofull prophane mouth to chalenge promises contrary to their scope Paul I know and Iesus I know but who art thou Terrors are for thee not promises Secondly this point serves for use of sharp reproofe and that of Vse 2 sundry sorts First of such as being under the condition of a promise Reproofe yet refuse to cast themselves upon it I spake of these before but this Branch 1 point enforces it much more For what is so according to a promise as that they who need it apply it But these dally
done with ease Naamans worke was to beleeve But having so done all the thought is taken God lookes to the cure without his care Could any thing come between him and home betweene promise and performance Not possibly for who should hinder God Esay 43.13 Faith is the presence of God in the soule Heb. 11.1 by making an evidence of things not seen and a bottome in things absent grace for grace Ioh. 1.17 may bee grace of performing for grace of beleeving Let this use lead on anoâ—her then in the feare of God and teach us to try our faith by this excellent property of performing promises True faith is perforforming faith And how Thinke not thy selfe to have true faith except thou hast performing faith Men rest in a naked empty faith bearing themselves in hand that they have true faith and they looke at the faithfulnesse of God in promising but aske them of performances and then they know not what to say to the matter Alas poore soule Faith is no pang or passage of a mans spirit woulding this or that nor a looking at a promise of truth as a thing doubtfull to me ward but it is a bottoming grace concurring most holily and humbly with the Lord in his reall and faithfull performings also That heart which supplieth performances with conceits of things that are not with some carnall contents or other without the presence of the thing beleeved more or lesse is a dead faith and knowes not the kindly nature of faith Prevention of an offence My scope in thus saying is not to adde sorrow to sorrow and to pinch such poore soules as have sufficient griefe already for lacke of feeling But to convince all false hypocrites as rest in a faith of their owne not in the faith of God who as Esay 55.2 saith lay out their silver for no bread but in the meane time nourish in themselves a dismall faith which failes of the grace of performance I dare not say that all performances are alike sensible all hearings of our prayers are not alike manifest to our feeling all fruit of receiving Sacraments fasting and the like are not of one cize measure carry not the same evidence peace comfort But hence it followes not Faith when shee s at lowest is yet a performing â—â—ith that any true faith is or can be dead faith in point of performing Naamans cure here was a more sensible one then some spirâ—tuall cures of faith are because it was bodily But yet even when faith seemes poorest her performances are reall and she never truly resignes up herselfe to a promise but if she come short in feeling she hath a supply from the reall faithfulnesse of God who hath told her That such a corruption decayeth such a grace encreaseth such a good thing is cast upon her because God hath said it and this doth really stay and quiet her spirit in him As an ancient Christian being asked whether he grew all this while in grace answered that he could not much boast of that he felt howbeit he beleeved that he did for God had said it According to thy faith so be it unto thee And contrariwise hence learne the wofull misery and beggery of unbeleef As Salomon speakes of the field of the sluggard Prov 24.30 that the briars and brambles thereof argueth his sloth so I may say of unbeleefe that its the roote of all the rags and basenesse which men walke with The difficulty of getting over this steep hill of performances comes onely from hence 1 Sam. 14.13 Ionathan sought on the lower ground against the Philistins by faith as if he had had the vantage of the ground Many men have faire hopes and opportunities to get favours from God but it s not the price in the hand but the heart of faith to beteame it to the promise and to lay it out Unbeleefe bindes the armes of God from performing of promises Unbeleefe bindes the armes of mercy and grace in God behinde him If God be so faithfull a performer what hath stopt the fountaine all this while Why is it so little a seen upon thy soule How might this barren heath of thine heart ere now become a flood as Esay saith 43.20 if thy sinne had not dried it up Well as the sinne of an unbeleever shall not restraine the bounty of God from him that beleeveth so neither shall the faith of a beleever supply the lacke of it in one that wants it Thinke not poore soule that the Sacrament shall be ever the lesse savoury and effectuall to thee because of them who come in to it with a saplesse and gracelesse heart Doe not thou thinke ere the meanlier of thy faith because hypocrites lowre upon thee and discerne not thy priviledge Prov. 14.10 But looke the more narrowly into thy priviledge and solace thine heart in it for neither shall any stranger enter into thy joy nor yet shalt thou fare the worse for their beggery So much for this Seventhly this point affords Admonition to all who would rejoyce in effectuall Vse 7 faith and faith in performances Admonition To avoid le ts of performances 1. Let. Mistaking performances That they strive hard against every let in the way which might hold their faith in a barren and fruitlesse defect and unprofitablenes There is nothing so excellent but it hath some canker to fret out the pith of it to blast the beauty of it One barre is the mistaking of performances we frame to our selves such an Idea of Gods favours such a great measure of graces such a pitch of faith of mortification and holinesse that hereby our eyes are blindfolded from beholding such performances as the Lord bestoweth But consider Is God tyed to thy scantlings We see how they Mica 2.6 come in and complaine against God in this kinde But marke the answer of God Oh thou house of Iacob is my Spirit straitned Are not my words good to them that walke uprightly So say I is God false because thou overpitchest thy thoughts beyond Gods wisdome Thou aimest at another mans portion as they who gathered manna were too greedy But be content with thine owne If thou have enough to keepe thee in working case jealous of thy selfe and thy corruptions it s enough although thou have not all at once Thou wouldest have three or foure mens portions so much as perhaps the Lord sees would overthrow thee Alas what canst thou beare in this multitude of corruption If thou hadst thy fill it would cost thee much buffeting to keep thee from pride Know that the very meer worke of exercising thy faith is a reward of it selfe Secondly trust not to thy dead priviledge of being a Beleever 2. Carnality and deadnesse of heart and so commit all to winde and weather maintaine not a dull drowsie lasie heart of unbeleefe but hold quarter daily with the Lord in concurring with his promises see how his performances follow thy beleeving
yea to runne into some morall evills which yet were damnable then thus to play the hangbies upon Religion Prayer for healing of our times of this numbe palsie of spirit necessary Ier. 2.2 and to eate out the very heart and entralls of her by our wofull unsavorinesse and declension Oh that God would heale our back-slidings cancell our Bill of devorce and make new love to us as in old times As those Martyrs so pray we Once againe Lord the power and life of thy Gospell give unto us the skinne and bones of an empty profession to be fill'd up and beautified with flesh and colour with countenance and savour of grace Oh Lord thou who madest the spirit of man breath a second spirit of thy Word to inspire our dead Carcasses with a second and better life Thou who causedst that Sunne of the Heavens to go backe ten degrees Esay 38. cause this Sunne of Grace to goe forward tenne degrees for it is gone backward too many already Thou who by that happie wind of thine scattered upon the surface of the earth didst hazle and drie up the forlorne dregges and slime of Noahs deluge Gen. 8.13 cause a new face of zeale and grace to appeare upon our age drunken and soaked in ease and sensuality Lord help us to cast our Eagles bill Psal 103.5 pluck off our Snake skin and renue us as the flesh of Naaman after Jordan Oh command an heart spirit of first love courage thanks joy and esteem of thy pretious Truth and Christ to return into us let it be as new blood in our veines and marrow to our bones count those daies of our decay declinings death distemper as if they had never bin Impute not unto us our unfruitfull Ministry unprofitable hearings returning to our vomit lingring after Popery and her defilements contempt and disdaine of powerfull ordinances which have deserved that we should be stript and wasted of all meanes Malach. 4.2 and left to utter woe and ruine Come and bring healing in thy wings at last and pardon the sins of all sorts that might hasten further wrath for what can be such a marke and symptome of misery comming spuing out of thy mouth Revel 3.18 as this decay of our temper So many of us as cleave to God let us not give him over for this mercy for surely many of us here especially of the richer sort whose gaines come in merrily and live at ease in Sion do shrewdly leane to this disease of luke-warmenesse Amos 6.1 begge it I say of the Lord that he leave us not quite here in this corner and make us not an hissing to all our neighbours for our barrennesse and desolation of the meanes who have hitherto abounded and caused the borders of our Towne to be wetted with those streames which have overflowed among us So much for this Branch 3 Thirdly so many of us as hitherto have lurked in our dens of ease and unprofitablenesse looke up at last and endeavour after this spirit of Naamans clensing and cure Exhort Gen. 18.12 Exhortation to get the spirit of true conversion Alas perhaps we laugh as Sara did when she heard she could give suck to heare of this that such dead blockes and lowring louts as many of us have beene to this day surviving our owne hopes and outbidding all threats and feares of the Word by a carnall stupor of our owne savouring nothing save our lusts and humours I say we thinke it impossible that ever wee should become any other Should such as wee ever be healed of our ignorance hard hearts and senselesnesse Should we ever come to be quickned by the hope of the Gospell to be forgiven and saved Should we ever become savory humble tender and zealous ones Truly I must tell you considering how some of us in this place have snorted out seven times seven yeares of Sermons or well nigh and fatted our selves under the Gospell with nothing but sottishnesse and security me thinkes I am halfe afraid of it Now am I leaving of you but how many shall I leave as I found them if not farre worse and what is like to be their end if they should live under no meanes or unfruitfull who knowes if a good day have not mended them must not a bad needs paire them The Lord flaite many of you this day out of your holes and corners me thinkes I behold your face with horrour and feare of any good Esay 55.8 but seeing the long sufferings of God are bottomlesse and his love as farre above our thoughts as the heavens above earth therefore I leave Gods secrets unto himselfe and spread before you still even at this last farewell the cords of the Lord and beseech you to come in and be converted and get this spirit of grace into you ere you goe hence and be seene no more Psal 39.3 Gal. 1. ult Oh it would make the Angels rejoyce and the world to wonder as Paul saith Gal. 1. Those that having knowne mee a persecutor heard that I was become a Preacher of the Gospell they magnified God for mee so should praises be offered up by many for you if it should be thus Who can tell brethren long hath the Gospell been laid in three pecks of meale in some of you Mat. 13.33 if now it might at last breake out as leaven and season you throughout what a blessed parting should it be to you and mee As you are I grant most of you no other is to be looked for then hath beene earth at first earth still and earth hereafter But if earth earth earth will heare the Word of the Lord it shall be otherwise Naaman was as far off as you till hee washed in Jordan but afterward what a spirit of healing and conversion came he forth withall How doth he come backe to Elisha Who can stay him How is his lowring heart enlarged to the Prophet What is too deare for him hee loves the ground hee stands upon and would carry it away upon mules his heart is ravisht with God and his worship and much water cannot quench love Such might you bee if the Lord would send Elisha to you Elisha is gone and the comming and going death and departure of many both Elija's and Elishaes you have seene and now of mee a poore Minister of Christ What shall no fruit come of all I am now going to tell my Master what fruit of all these sixe yeares worke here and many more in other places and by other my Predecessours hath beene reaped What shall I be able to say nothing to comfort the heart of God and his people Oh sad thing Well I leave it to your thoughts it is as much as I can say That if God perswade you nothing was done upon Naaman but might be done upon you Many of your own number out of the stools wherin you sit some of your wives in your bosomes children and servants under your
cold We see all come to passe Therefore let us all whom God cals by tongue or by penne looke to the safeguard of Truth and say as those did to David so we to Truth Thou art worth ten thousand of us if we dye wee may be supplied but if thou shouldest miscarry all of us must perish As the life of old Iacob was bound up in Benjamins so ours in Truth As in some former Treatises I have endeavoured to give Section 5 my poore witnesse to the practicall truths of Religion as a most sworne enemy to all Schisme and Novelty so in this I aime more especially to encounter prophanenesse and lukewarmenesse and both to convince the former and rectifie the latter As Sinne lies deeply rooted in the one so even Grace it selfe for lacke of quickning lies dead in the other Those that are not sunke into a prophane way yet may be sunke from a zealous I consider with my selfe that as Treatises doe well for maintaining of truths so Sermons are more peculiar for the suppressing of vicious manners or lukewarm profession In Treatises we speak Gods conclusions in Sermons God seemes to speake his owne so great the oddes is in what way a truth be uttered our owne or Gods As Israel thought herselfe doubly strong having got the Arke into the Campe to fight with the Philistins so in preaching we seem to doe as the Angel who went to heaven in the smoake of Gods sacrifice There is more of God in this method then in any and wee had need use the forciblest corrasives to eat out the dead flesh of vice and the keenest spurres to drive others out of the declining temper of their lukewarme profession and neutrality Moses we know might serve to teach people Truths and Ordinances But when the great worke of scaring rebels and convincing the conscience was to be done God himselfe was faine to descend in his likenesse with terror and smoke and all too little and questionlesse that is the most noble Ordinance which works most upon and most prevailes with the part of man which is noblest and whereby we draw nearest to God the heart I meane and the affections In Gods sacrifices we read not much of the looking upon the braines or offering them up to God by fire but of the heart liver and the inward parts the fat of them as choice was Gods part The reason no doubt was that although the understanding is the guide of the soul yet because the object of it is onely truth But the object of the will and affections is properly good and by embracing and affecting of good we come nearer to God then by meere understanding of truth therefore the word preached most affecting the inner man by drawing perswading convincing quickning and comforting of it must needs have the preeminence of all other Ordinances There is oftentimes in the unregenerate alway a gulfe set betweene the understanding and the affections so that the one never comes at the other but when once affections are truly stirred this gulfe vanisheth and an easie path-way is made in the soule to welcome Gods grace and to expresse it in the life neither seeme we in any other respect to excell those wicked Angels save in the goodnesse of our affections I speake not this as an enemy to knowledge without which the heart is nought but because the wofull age we live in above all other things is most empty and yet most carelesse of getting good affections Every one thinkes himselfe to be happy in that he knoweth not in that he affecteth beleeveth or loveth whereas in these latter our union and communion with God consists The heart and spirit of the man his bent his frame that is the man and I beleeve that as they say of the materialls of the world they would soone dissolve if the soule of it were taken away so the vast body of Light and Knowledge of many professors will ruine and oppresse herselfe ere long for lack of sutable life spirit and affections This notion seemed to me very forcible to perswade the publishing of these Sermons after some other Treatises formerly set forth But will some say we grant all Sermons are indeed as you say powerfull instruments to stirre the soule bâ—â— what is that to printing and writing You know no peâ—cill can fully reach a living face The Presse cannot comprehend the Pulpit and writing of a Booke is but as the picture of a dead man in comparison of the lively voice To whom I answer Time hath beene when I have beene so farre transported with this thought that I would have preferred the preaching of a Sermon to the printing of a Booke But now I must sing another note and therefore I answer further although the objection in part be true yet consider God hath covered the uncomely parts with greatest honour and although the grace of the Spirit in preaching and giving overtures of lively impression to the heart cannot be equalled by printing yet printing hath also that peculiar use which preaching it selfe reacheth not that is constantly to represent things which while they were in uttering seemed pretious but yet are soon forgotten Luke 1.4 I say to present them alway to the eye and so to hold them there as a naile fastned in a sure place from wanzing and leaking out And moreover when the Preacher shall with diligence and observation both marke wherein God assisted him most and hold himselfe as neare as he can to his expressions somewhat more may be compassed in this kinde then otherwise But however he is a foole who counts not halfe a loafe better then no bread or despiseth the Moon-shine because the Sun is down and I hope that such as were once attentive hearers of these things when they read these Lectures shall in some sort recognize the savour and grace which in hearing they seemed to acknowledge Wherefore to conclude as I for my part thinke it a favour that I may be the overseer of mine owne Bookes which else by audacious and unskilfull adventurers might have beene defaced and also that I may set my base heart on work any way to prevent sloth ease So I shall desire thee good Reader to apply thy self with thy best care and prayers to peruse what God hath herein presented thee withall And if thou pickest any thing out blesse God and pray for me even for Thine in Christ D. Rogers The list of Contents TOuching Gods Soveraignty and Freedome in decreeing Touching the preventing assisting and perfecting grace of God in mans vocation Touching Selfe and Selfe love Touching carnall Reason How farre policy lawfull Touching Gods way in humbling the soule or the condition of the Promise Touching Servants and their duties with Masters a full discourse Touching Faith a discourse thereof at large Touching the due reverence support of the Minister by the people Touching the Promises and Performances of God Their nature and use Touching the effect of Faith and
with such a hideous outside of apparrel camels haire course diet Luke 3. and also with the extraordinary spirit of Elia save that the people being taken at first by his guise and habit might be wrought upon the more easily by his Ministry preparing and levelling their rough and high spirits for their Lord Jesus And what other use had all those miracles wherewith the doctrine of Christ and all the preaching of the Apostles were accompanied save this that by and with them as by Tunnels the influence power and authority of truth might enter and prevaile with the mindes and consciences of the hearers ere they were aware That they being amazed and convinced by the greatnesse of those signes and effects which attended and followed the word might have no power nor spirit left in them to contradict him that spake thereby but yeeld and beleeve the truth for the workes sake The miracles themselves the healing of a leper the restoring of the lame the raising up of the dead the healing of the sicke the doing of the workes and benefiting of the persons was not the issue and intent of the worker but that the glory of that God the grace of that spirit which wrought such wonders might soke and sinke into the soules of men before and upon whose eies and persons those miracles were discovered That by this meane conversion from Idols and sinfull courses unto the living God might be effected through faith in the promise Witnesse that story of the woman of Samaria in the fourth of S. Iohn To whom the Lord Jesus did so expresse himselfe as to declare all the secrets of her heart to convince her of all the villanies that ever she had committed in all her seven husbands time and why Surely that she having her loade of heart within her might go into the City tell it her kindred and acquaintance draw them to Christ himselfe as being astonisht at his excellency and being once within his compasse might be easily pulled by his doctrine to a further pitch of grace and say Now we beleeve not because of the wordes which thou hast spoken but because we have heard him speake himselfe This should teach us a wide difference between Gods word and the writings and stories of Heathens Vse of instruct who to get themselves a name among men and to sute the eloquence of their stile either Greeke or Latine Poets and Historians have stuffed their writings with abundance of rarities and wonders for the procuring admiration of men and appetite of Readers Branch 1 curious of Novelties But alas their relations being justly suspitious Heathen stories unlike the Scripture and for the most part fabulous and vaine savoring of mans base spirit and lying invention doe as much dishonour their fidelity as they magnifie their language and skill in contriving they doe but Ape the Scriptures and steale away the minds of Students who although they may lawfully further themselves by the tongue and phrase yet ought to take heed how they bee taken too farre with them as some profane wits have beene who have not stuck to scorne some writers of Scripture in comparison of this or that Heathen writers No give all their due but reserve that preeminence of worth to the Scriptures which they deserve being as much beyond the most exact writer of Story for their Antiquity purity Majesty and authority as the Sunne is above the poorest starre in the firmament Branch 2 And secondly this observation might leave much instruction with us if we were willing to embrace it And first it might set a glasse before our eyes to behold in our nature that wofull insensiblenesse and unperceiving of holy things Rom. 8.6.7 The carnall man saith Saint Paul conceiveth not the things of God neither yet can do they are spiritually discerned by the power of another principle I say not that this course of miracles or wonderfull effects is able to overcome this stupor of our understanding no there must be a further progresse of the spirit of grace to effect that yet this externall and remote preparative may be enough to convince us what a spirit of old Adam dwels in us and what a curse lyes upon our nature for the resisting of that light of truth which was put into us in our creation And that is the losse not only of actuall light but even of disposition to apprehend the truths which are offred us for the cure of our disease Our faculty to understand is still left in us so that we are not meere blockes and beetles But in matters of God so originally are we blunted and dulled in our spirits and sences so disabled and so disguized so deeply also implunged into a life of sence and sottish sensuality that the mysteries of God are quite above us As the nature of sensible creatures in kind exceeds the vegetable and the reasonable goes beyond them so that each of them wants a faculty to reach the others object so doth the mystery of God of Christ of grace exceed the understanding of a meere reasonable creature I shall meete with a better ground of opening this point after here only let this suffice to abase us and hold us downe before God as degenerate and miserable creatures in respect of this our incapablenesse of holy things Jewes strangely insensible of Gods miracles We can cry out of the Jewes whom the Scriptures were written unto for that they were so dull and slow of heart to conceive the matters of God his workes and wayes when as yet they were beaten into every sence as it were with hammers of extraordinary and divine Prophecies Visions miracles and waies of revealing Oh! say men doubtlesse had we seene the standing up of the sea on both sides dry in the midst the returne of the waters upon the Egyptians the gushing forth of water from a Rock and the bringing in of such a number of quailes how would we have acknowledged the power and Majesty of God Had we seene the Law given by Angels with terrors and fire had we beheld with our eyes the person of Iohn a miracle without miracles and the wonders which Christ and the Apostles added to their Sermons how would we have beene ravished with them and beleeved I answer so should they have done indeed and you if you had beene in their places But alas as they did so should you have done without more grace and that appeares by this that now being under far greater convictions and a way of God as far exceeding the power of those outward signes as heaven exceeds earth yet you are as farre from conceiving and beleeving as they Thirdly it should scare and terrifie all of us who now injoy the body Vse 2 of Scripture compleate Humiliation together with all the helpes of those divine ordinances which are bestowed upon the Church of Christ both publicke and private for that notwithstanding all these the most people still remaine
unperswaded or halfe perswaded of the truth Hebâ— 2.2.3.4 Saint Paul to the Hebrewes Cap. 2. tells us if they who despised Moses Law upon two or three witnesses were condemned what shall become of them who despise so great salvation who still distrust that truth of God which was first spoken by the Lord of heaven and earth comming in the flesh Miracles serve to convince the soule of the truth sealed thereby afterward confirmed by such as heard him by miracles and the power of the word in those who were converted So may I say here this very text of Naaman shall stand up and convince all that maintaine selfe and selfe-love carnall and corrupt reason against the truth and power of the promise yea this miracle whereby the word was strengthned with all those miracles by which any truth of Christ hath since been justified shall rise up and convince all unbeleevers I meane such as live under meanes in that day For why Though they saw none of these miracles yet hearing the word beholding the seales receiving them into all our sences I say such a word as hath beene ratified by all the wonders of the Old and New Testament serving to beare down a base heart of unbeliefe about the truth power love al-sufficiency of God if they beleeve not by all these they shall be condemned justly by that authority which they have despised yea the very frame of the Scriptures and the expressions of so many strange and admirable passages serving to raise up a base and crawling spirit to heaven if we shall be found unbeleevers in that great day of Christ shall be brought forth as a witnesse against us for our horrible insensiblenesse and stupor of minde and heart Unbeleefe of Scripture and Truth of God after so many miracles very damnable For by these the Lord hath as it were striven to engraven in our spirits as with the pen of a Diamond the truthes of God and mystery of Christ If then our soules shall be found so hard and flinty that this point hath not pierced them if wee be still unconvinced and this instrument of gold hath no more left impression upon us then if a straw or rotten sticke had beene used to write in our tables of stone oh how fearefull shall our condemnation be If any man shall step in here and demand Quest Miracles how far ceased hard to say hath God so sufficiently confirmed his truth by miracles that there shall neede no more I answer I know its the opinion of many that they are wholly ceased and that because the use of them is ceased Answ For that spirit which attends the Ministry of the word carries a conviction of the truth into the mind according to all that is in the truth Now if it be so then that spirit perswades the soule of all the truth aswell in respect of the confirmation of it by miracles as otherwise but as I stagger much about this opinion so yet I am loth to affirme that the Church hath any warrant under faith to looke for the gift of miracles to be assuredly vouchsafed her although the ends thereof may seeme very weighty Who can or dare deny but that the calling of those Americans to the knowledge of the truth may seeme a weighty occasion to expect from God the gift of miracles partly by reason of their language almost impossible to be attained except by either a miraculous or at least a marveilous gift partly because there be poore inducements to draw such imperswasible and brutish spirits to cast so much as their eyes upon any meanes to induce them to beleeve In both which respects I dare not deny but that as Satan by lying wonders prevailes much with such as perish so the Lord may vouchsafe this spirit of miracles to his Church when his time is come to effect the conversion of such Only I adde that when his time is come he will grant his Church an instinct of spirit to aske it and joyne seriously in the meanes to attaine it which else he will not incline them unto his time not being come For wee must weigh the ends of our travell into remote parts whither for our owne ends or for publique If our owne respects be chiefe we have no cause to looke for miracles But I chuse rather to leave the thing in Gods dispose Vse 4 Lastly let it exhort us both generally and specially first to sue earnestly to the Lord Jesus our Prophet Exhortation the Word of the Father and the first inditer of all Scripture Spirit of acknowledgement of God in his word is to be sought by prayer the contriver of all the passages thereof the worker of all wonders and the Author of all grace and wisedome that he would vouchsafe us the spirit of revelation and acknowledgement of him as Saint Paul speakes Ephes 1.18 That we being enlightned in our mindes may conceive aright of the true scope and intent of the Spirit in the Scriptures Branch 1. generall and that he would intimate our hearts with the purpose thereof which is that our soules might be captivated under the power and authority of the speaker That we rest not in the outside of miracles wonders parables similitudes which we heare or read but considering their aime be carried downe the streame of the thing spoken yea the power To rest in the barke of the word or of miracles Parables Similitudes is dangerous soveraignty and faithfulnesse of the speaker Not only thereby conceiving more cleerely in our mindes of the Lord his Attributes and the truths revealed but much more ravished in our affections towards him for the good things whereof we have tasted Many chuse patheticall texts histories and accidents actions and speeches of speciall note to read and please themselves in some delight to read of the building of the Temple others of the passion of Christ others other parcells of Scripture to provoke admiration and discourse even as they might read any other booke of tales and wonders some also read texts of devotion and holinesse as the Psalmes or wise sentences as the Proverbs with a morrall spirit and scope only but never muse of the severall ends of such places nor the spirit of grace therein save onely to amuse their mindes and stirre up pangs of affection But by these to come neerer to know their owne base hearts or to close with the examples of such grace to feare the judgements of God the more deepely to beleeve the promises better to subject themselves more to the commands of God and in all to see his foote-steps and to adore the speaker few attaine it Therefore let us read these texts with prayer to God for sence and savor of their meaning and scope that we may attaine the spiritualnesse of them Else we shall answer heavily to God for making the solemne and reverend truths of God an occasion to nourish and maintaine that corrupt disposition
weapons and tremble at thy wretchednesse Branch 6 Sixtly let this doctrine not onely convince thy judgement of a truth that the case thus standeth Lay downe thy pride and rebellion between God and thy soule but let it proceed to bring thine heart and whole selfe under the authority of this advantage at which God hath thee That is let it worke exceeding humiliation and feare of spirit in thee and cause thee to pull downe thy peacocks fethers and lay downe thy pride rebellion and gainsaying heart and be as one out of himselfe As that jailor when the earthquake had broken the prison doores Act. 16.27 and loosed the prisoners thought himselfe but a dead man Act. 9. and Paul being under the arrest of Gods might and power lay for dead So the thought of this thy wofull disadvantage under the hand of God should cause the jollity of thy spirit to quaile and thy bog and bold heart to be abashed saying if this be thus whence comes my impudent resolute purpose to go on in my course I see I have not mercy at my command nor grace pind to my sleeve when I can but use three or foure good wordes at my death Alas I perceive I my selfe am infinitely under the advantage of Justice and wrath both in Adam and by my owne wicked courses Is this then Oh my soule a season of revelling of casting care away of adding drunkennesse to thirst Is this a time to contest to provoke to increase sinne by wilfulnesse What do I think to scare God by my murmurings and cavills against him Oh no! this is the way to make judgement inexcusable and hell seven times hotter then at first See Esay 28.22 Therefore lay it to heart as those in Act. 2. did when they heard Peter shew them what pickle they were in for murdering the Lord of life Oh! their hearts were gored as with a swords point So let rottennesse enter into thy bones tremble and say What if the Lord should take this advantage of his to destroy me What if his long suffering all this while hath onely spared me as a vessel of wrath that he might with the fuller swinge come upon me and all at once sweep me to hell what a taking are those men in who are at their enemies curtesie as having lost all they have or condemned in as much as they are worth and at the mercy of their adversary who hath got an execution against all their estate surely hee were an odde man for stoutnesse of stomacke who should stand it out and dare his enemy to ceaze upon him Alas Esay 27.4.5 what a poore wretch should he be made So here what rescue hath the dry stubble against the advantage of fire if once kindled in it Oh! if thou canst bring downe thy base and sturdy heart by this meditation how thou standest at the meere curtesie of him who cannot only destroy thy body Luke 12.4.5 but cast body and soule to hell if this will master thy proud heart and make thee crouch and put thy face within thy knees for confusion and sorrow thou hast attained some part of that end which this convincement serves for Seventhly yet rest not in this dejection onely Consider that the soveraignty Branch 7 of God doth not reach only to destroy the creature Soveraignty is free to save aswell as to destroy but sometimes to abase it and save it There is a soveraignty of mercy a free and bountifull grace aswell in that God who hath thee at this advantage as a power to condemne And therefore apply thy selfe to the beholding of those cords which the Gospell puts in and offers thee in this dungeon and of that ladder which is thrust in for thee to come up by as to the meer implodding and sadding thy thoughts with the likelyhood of thy confusion Consider its one step to pardon to lay to heart Gods advantage For who are they who perish who carry a blacke marke of wrath about them Surely those who either acknowledge no such thing live at hearts case and elbow-roome and come leaping forth in their chaines with Agag or else if they heare of it murmur fret and kicke against it 1 Sam. 15. If then thou hast escaped both one thing remaineth escape also an unbeleeving heart Rest not in these suburbes of hell but behold the freedome of mercy in the promise And do not reach first at Election and so fal backe and breake thy necke Election not to be first lookt at but the offer of grace But take this first worke of humiliation in thee as an hansell of hope that more shall follow and as for Gods secrets they must attend faith not goe before it Therefore nakedly and without further dispute convince thy judgement of a possibility of escaping this advantage which God hath thee at Not by thy struggling and fighting against it as Pharaoh against the waters returning but by thy meeke and humble stooping under it And know that this doctrine of Gods soveraignty serves to try the spirit of men of what mettle they are made of and to condemne none save the finally rebellious Those who cease whetting at Gods secrets as not belonging to them and only betake themselves to the softly streames of Siloam beholding with stedfast eye Deut. 29.29 the freedome bottomednesse and unchangeablenesse of the promise have a marke upon them of such as shall be saved the soveraignty of Gods advantage against the poore creature notwithstanding Come then to the Lord and say thou mayst indeed justly damne me yet thou mayst also save mee O Lord doe not destroy thy creature let it please thee to have mercy and desire not the death of a poore wretch with thee the fatherlesse shall find mercy of which I am What boot shall it be for thee to have my bloud Oh spare a little let me recover my selfe if thou must needs be just powre thy wrath upon despisers but spare the penitent and such as lye at thy feet as lost Eightly let this conviction of judgement turne thy soule to make an adventure and where thou seest a breach made there to lay the battery Branch 8 of faith to assay an entrance into the City of grace The Lord having cut off his plea by as strong a remedy Assay to beleeve and redemption yea stronger then ever the former advantage lay calls thee to lay hold of it strongly in the blood and satisfaction of thy Redeemer How dost thou find thy selfe affected in this case Whether chusest thou to curse God and dye or to breake and pull downe thy stomacke and live judge thy selfe herein acording to the rule if ever the advantage of God dranke up thy spirit how wentest thou to worke didst thou recke thy teene upon God and quarrell with him for his forsaking thee or soughtst thou after a way of hope by Gods cutting off his owne advantage in his Sonne Dost thou behold the Lord
God when the famine pinched him and to kill the Prophet and yet to goe no further then himselfe confuting himselfe when hee and Iehoshaphat and a third King went against the King of Moab Cap. 3. and was at a straight like to perish for lacke of water both he and the Armies behold what a change it wrought on the sudden For then he seekes to the Prophet and bemones the straight in which the Army was making no other account but that God might justly suffer them all to perish And when Elisha disdained to looke at him yet his fiery spirit held it selfe in by compulsion from any misdemeanor So that he must bee a monster of men whom a deepe straight will not subdue and tame unto the stooping to any conditions I grant this may sometime prove only an act of policy or of carnall feare and so cease We read of a royall spirited Emperour Henry the fourth of Germany who being wearied with the tyranny of sundry Popes and of Alexander by name was at last by his roaring Bulls and excommunications which in those daies scared the greatest brought to such an exigent that he with his Empresse and their young son were faine to stand 3. daies barefoot at the proud Popes gate And being after admitted to his presence when he was urged to lye prostrate before him the Pope treading upon his necke and spurning off his Crowne with his foot although the spirit of the Emperour could have rebelled and beganne to disdaine it yet for policy sake he was compelled to desist It s noted in Judges that when the Ammonites oppressed Israel the Elders of Gilead and brethren of Iptha who before had thrust him out for a bastard being in a straight for a Captaine Judg. 10. were compelled to goe to Iptha to crave his returne and to undertake the warre and when he cast them in the teeth with their former injurious casting him out yet the extremity they were in humbled them and kept them downe so that they were glad to take shame to themselves and to begge aide even of that bastard when they saw their welfare lay bleeding at the stake and none fit to helpe them but himselfe These are but common naturall instances yet they lay forth the point thus farre that the naturall spirit of the hautiest and most disdainefull man toward such as himselfe will abate and come downe when an exigent is upon them And the like may be said of man toward God when they are laid upon his bayard and when he hath them upon the hip by any deepe and straight sore and extremity Yea it is true even of Gods owne deare people already in Covenant with him whose slavish hearts have often been compelled by Gods Chaines upon them to forget their jollity and sensuall appetite and to stoope to Gods power under their straights That which I formerly spake of the Soveraignty of Gods Nature I may here verifie of the outward extremities which he brings us into Both serve to bring downe the heart and to make it humble and subject Iob was an holy man yet such naturall scurffe the Lord saw to lurke in his spirit that he was faine by the losse of all his substance children health of body the enmity of his friends the terrors upon his soule the admonition of Elihu and the Lords owne tawing of him by the view of all his power and the terror of Leviathan and Behemoth at last to wring this speech from him Cap. 42. I abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes Hezekiah also was a godly King Job 42.3 but his treasures and wealth and elbow-roome made him so fledge and jolly that he forgat himselfe till the Lord smot him with the plague Esay 38.15 put him in feare of his life and urged him to say I will walke all the rest of my daies softly in the bitternesse of my soule in the midst of my house The Lord had him upon the hip and then he could crouch 1 King 19.12.13 Jonah 1. 2. 1 Sam. 24. Elija Iona David and Salomon all holy men yet till they were frayed with the thunder and earthquake cast into the Whales belly straighted betweene the choice of either famine warre or pestilence and the like saw not into the frowardnesse rebellion and stoutnesse of their spirit But of all others it is truest of such spirits as the Lord subdues to himselfe and drawes out of a cursed sinfull course Such as this patterne in our text resembles Naaman I meane for although as yet he was not privy to Gods purpose towards him in this abasing of his stout heart yet he was in Gods dispensation now in the way unto it and by this as a step came to the other The prodigall who is a true mirror in all points of a debaucht sinner and fugitive from God was faine to be pursued so narrowly by the hand of God Luk. 14.15.16 that till there was no possibility of subsistence for him any way he never thinkes of a father and lesse of returne and least of humbling himselfe But when hee was brought to an absolute straight and could no longer hold out his great stomacke and resolution never to see his father begins to quaile and then his father began to savor with him It is with the spirit of a sinfull Rebell against God as it is with a City besieged by a strong enemy but the City having both abundance of outworkes and strong forts raised up with plenty of provision within besides store of brave souldiers who will spend the last drop of their heart blood ere it be said they are cowards scorne to yeeld their City But when long time of assault the instance and unweariednesse of the besieging army hath battered downe all their forts Simile murdered all their Souldiers with the Canon beaten downe their Citie over their eares houses Temples walls and opened a wider breach for entrance then they can make up againe besides the exhausting of all come and victuall within and intercepting all succors from without Then perhaps when no remedy else from forraine aide appeares they will hang out the white flag and cry for conditions of surrender but before nothing but scorne and defiance will be admitted Even so is it with the unregenerate soule shee pleases her selfe with her false treasure the perswasion that she is rich and full and happy and yet perhaps remaines meerely ignorant or at least in a formall and dangerous estate insensible of wrath or danger This state she findes ease in and when the Lord would hunt her out of it she sits upon her Idolls securely and will not stirre The out-workes and forts of the soule against God She imbarkes her selfe in this error by the conceit of her wealth health youth outward contents want of crosses credit good successe how can God hate her giving her all these if the Lord drive her out of these outworkes yet she runs into stronger forts compares her selfe
our hearts to sensuality ease Sabbath-breaking lusts excesse of pleasures riot gaming and stretching of our selves upon beds of Ivory that the clamours of the oppressed the afflicted people of God might not be taken to heart or regarded Who considers how the hearts of the fathers have been estranged from the children Malac. 4. and the childrens from them who trembles at it and feares lest by a common enemy the Lord should smite the earth with cursing who hath humbled his soule under our moth-eatings and seekes to prevent the Lions tearing of us in peeces But all of us abhorre to acknowledge any pressures please our selves with such contents as we enjoy in private that we might oppresse sense and conscience Hee that could bring us newes of all well hopes of good welfare and prosperity should bee a welcome man to us but as for sadder times to search the sound from the hollow we are loath to heare of them because wee are loath to prepare for them The effects of those things cannot please us the causes whereof we are loath to bestow the cost to remove In the meane time how is the Lord frustrate of his expectation for hee pinches and yokes us that hee might heare of us that our beloved pretious lusts might bee divorced from us We pray and fast but the Lord tels us wee cannot speed because we still keep a breadth in his narrow Esay 58.5.6 and in our afflictions are light-hearted our hearts are not broke enough our speciall lusts wee have pleasure in when heaven is falling upon our heads wee can beleeve nothing ere we feele it lest it should cost us labour to cast it out Our Babylonish garment secret plague of heart pretious sin wee dare nourish in the midst of all terrours and crosses thundring about us So mad wee are that wee cry peace in the midst of ill tidings ruines of other Churches troubles in our owne dearth unseasonable weather losses of our estate and evils both suffered and feared Surely God hath us down now Joel 2.12 common stuffe will not serve us I might speak as much of our abusing of personall streights The like complaint in respect of personall pressures How many of us are privie in our places and dwellings to sundry who in the extremities of horrour and guilt of conscience upon their sick beds have sent for the Minister whom they have scorned before and there vomited up all their gorge accused and condemned themselves for their pride malice drunkennesse contempt of religion have shed salt teares in abundance wrung the Minister by the hands cried him mercie for all wrongs covenanted and taken witnesse if they lived they would be new men They have been neare to death and had reconciliation offered them But no sooner hath the hiew and cry been over but they have returned to their vomit their bowing like Bull-rushes hath turned to stand bolt upright and they have growne more base and wicked after 1 King 13.6.7 then before As Ieroboam while his dried hand lasted was tame and penitent but when restored fell to his Idols double and treble What was there not such a deep pressure upon them as spent and consumed their flesh and marrow and brought them to the graves brinke Yes But yet it was not deep enough it pierced not to the inner man the heart was the old one still so that wee Ministers had not need to bee over confident of them for if that had been pierced then the thoughts of their heart the affections and lusts had been galled and purged As the Philosopher being beaten with Clubs Men not to be trusted on their sicke beds said You beat my Tun meaning his skin and flesh but you beat not me so may these say to God Thou layest me upon my bed breakest my bones takest away my stomack abasest humblest my flesh and terrifiest my sense but my heart is whole my stoutnesse unbelief hollownesse and prophanenesse remaine my soul was never flayted who would ever have thought it Surely if the Lord then mean thee good hee must put more drammes and drugges into the Physicke else they will never worke Note Take heed Ieroboam had a command first that hee broke then a Prophet him he scorned then a threat that he out-grew and at last was left so hardened that meanes ceased because God meant to destroy him Beware this be not your lot Vse 3 Thirdly this should teach us not to wonder that men are so loath to take any notice of streights Wonder not that men so little joy in hearing of streights either generall or personall Surely they see that they are searching humbling taming things sent to pull the heart low and lay it open before God this they flye from as Moses from a serpent therefore as Pharaoh by his Sorcerers and Ieroboam by the death of the Prophet hardned themselves against the streights that befell them so do these with fool-hardy courage flye against the returning waters lest they should be stopt in their course All the wits that men have are mostly spent upon these two objects either dispensing with the strictnesse of commands Or when judgements come avoiding the dint and pressure of them Mens shifts agâ—inst their streights Men shuffle them off thus either they concerne not themselves or they befell by chance or may be bought off with money or shunned by policie or worne out with time or lessened by comparison But to take note thereof to lay sin to heart and repent of it they are utterly opposite to it David was not more resolved to lye in his filth and when Vriahs death was told him 1 Sam. 13. hee did not more equivocate with his conscience saying Tush the sword kills all sorts what 's his death to me then these professe to goe on blind-folded with sweet inchantments or fool hardily with rebellion and to give no way at all to divine yokes and pressures to pinch them What argues this but a desperate heart to fight it out with God 1 King 7. end with him that said This comes from the Lord shall I attend him any longer Such a cursed hard heart doth but keep all to the last heaping up wrath and when long-suffering hath spent it selfe in pulling them to repentance then shall they bee left to conflict nakedly with hell and vengeance till it carry them away quicke and there be none to deliver Oh! be admonished take note in season rather of Gods meaning and fight not against God What doe yee thinke that God hampers you either by word or workes to destroy you If his meaning were so he could doe it without warning And as for shifting off Gods yokes bee sure of it there is no counsell against him if you balke him one way he can match you ten wayes Better stoop betimes No râ—sisting of God 1. 2 King 16. and come in freely for he can make thy whole life a pressure fill thee with
all adversity as Oded saith If thou scape the Lion the Beare shall meet thee if both a Serpent out of the wall shall bite thee There is no struggling And besides why should a streight so scare thee from God hath it no power or use in it to draw thee neerer God will nothing serve thee save to hate him for amends whom thou hast already hurt Is not all for thy good if thou be not a Bedlam And mayst thou not blesse God for a Little-ease when the world could not hold thee nor the earth beare thee for thy wildnesse and insatiablenesse in sin Tell me Streights cannot bee well wanted if God had not matched thee who could hadst thou not been damned Shall then the remedy bee worse then the disease wilt thou breake all chaines wit hs and ropes like Samson cannot a prison hold thee when all is done Oh if not before yet at the last when God hath thee there grinding like an Asse look up and say I will return to my father Or thinkest thou that thou shalt not profit by it Remember it is a marke of a reprobate not to profite by the last medicine Oh! there is abundant gaine in a crosse and streight Beleeve the doctrine and apply thy selfe to it sue to God for an heart to concurre with him in it and thou shalt finde a streight to be more wholesome for thee then to have thy will Heathens could say so and art thou a Divell to deny it One of them a deep observer of moralls and events having knowne one to bee very licentious in life and after comming to see him on his death-bed writes thus of it to his friend Yesterday I understood by visiting such a one how much better wee are in sicknesse then in health For what sicke man shall you see covetuous or libidinous or revengefull or contentious So that it were to be wished that we were such in coole blood and in health as in feare of death wee are forced to bee So farre hee So that wee shall need to consult with no Scripture for the matter But if we doe we shall read Lam. 3.27 It is good for a man that he beare the yoke and vers 22. even in chains and banishment the Church confesseth The compassions of the Lord are renewed every morning which she did scarcely see in liberty I need name no more Onely let this be noted That it is not wise for us so studiously to shun or shift off streights Shunne not streights nor so eagerly to lay for ease and liberty to the flesh except wee would covet sorrow and avoid humiliation Rather lay together what vantage thousands have made thereof both Prodigals before conversion and Revolters after repentance how the pride and jollity of the one in knowing no God as Nebuchadnezzar and the Jaylor hath beene turned into meeknesse and how the carnall sensuality of the other as David being driven away by Absolom and Samson in prison hath been corrected and changed to sobriety and watchfulnesse Lastly let this exhort all who would be truly happy to looke up to God the maker of yokes the easer of yokes and the sanctifier thereof that he would concurre with them in giving them a kindly worke and issue Vse 4 upon our soules Exhortation Looke up to God for a sanctified use of all strairs Alas straits and extremities are no reall substance of goodnesse but only preparatives and accidentalls occasioning the worke The effect of grace resteth in the pleasure of him that sends them if with an heart of mercy they shall not cease till they have left the soule under the authority of grace if not they shall onely make it inexcusable in the day of destruction Rest not then in this which many rest in that they feele an awed fearefull heart checking and taming them from old ventrousnesse and sawcinesse against God This is a great change but not the change which they must looke after For as a Master Not onely to awe and tame us doth as truly loath a base slave as a sawcy fellow to be his servant preferring a lowly and chearefull subjection before both extreames so doth the Lord he loaths both the bold the servile spirit If Naaman had rested in this his crouching at the Prophets gate under the disease he felt he had never been cured and yet even this was one step to pull downe his stomacke We see that when hee was put to it in the next verse he raged as base as he seemed here A Lion is a Lion still both couchant and rampant But if a Lion were made a lambe it should be a Lion no more Religion stands in no forreigne violence or pangs and acts of compulsion but in inward habits and principles Every violent thing doth but watch her time to bee set at liberty as a prisoner to finde the doores open and to file his chaine off Why Because he was where he would not be and seekes to be where his delight is A proud carnall heart vaine and loving sensuall objects may be held from them a time and for the while in some respects thinke its well that its free from the tyranny of some lusts for the noysomenesse sake But when it can have liberty to them and be let out to old objects of vanity pride and sensuality it prefers it rather because the constitution of it is naturally so I say therefore rest not in such an estate Consider how endlesse it is to strive with a body of evill by a few pangs of actuall distaste and violent restraint Thinke with thy selfe how little thou hast prevailed by all this course and that it will be a work ever to do till the Lord binde the soule to her good behaviour by putting goodnesse into it and causing it to behave it selfe well it is but as the damming up of a violent streame which will have her course Be not too much dismaid at the thought of a new change of thine heart it s at the first a sad object to the carnall heart but the sweetnesse of it at last makes it welcome The Lord begins with violence but ends in sweetnesse the spirit of grace working a principle of delight in the soule But to work a change in the soule and to turn it to God The dismall thoughts of a true change by a milde and softly drawing the will freely to choose grace before corruption even for the good and savour which it feels therein As it was lately with a melancholy man upon his marriage he was exceedingly dejected to thinke that now hee had put himselfe into a new frame which hee had not formerly knowne and lost the liberty of his single estate brought the charge of wife children and family upon himself whereof before he was free so is it with the corrupt part when it judges of that estate which God pulles her to But if God match that feare with the sweetnesse of union and marriage
him to the ground and amazed him till hee had throughly subdued him under his owne will and government Herein shewing himselfe to bee as Paul Eph. 3. Epes 3.15 calles him the Father of all the families of the Earth For as the Master of a family over-rules his servants will and businesse and when he intends one worke in an ordinary course of service his Master hath some other businesse of greater consequence to send him about and so the servant is acted by his master to forbeare the one and dispatch the other so is it here in the great worke of salvation Many a man useth to make an ordinary worke of going to a place where the Word is preached hee aimes at businesse or company or novelties or perhaps cavilling at the Minister The Lord aimes at fetching him within his net that hee may divert his purpose and draw him to conversion Not onely as Esay saith Cap. 65.1 The Lord is found of such as sought him not that is prevents the thoughts which were roving helward worldward and sinward Job 33. Esay 65.1 to thinke of matters of greater consequence even heaven and happinesse But which is more when they perhaps purposed to crosse with God as Paul did the Lords intents overrule mans and turne him the way which himselfe intends As old Eli overrules Samuels feelinesse and saith if he call againe say speake for thy servant heareth Secondly the Lord where he meanes to convert will mightily over-power the soule from stumbling at such discouragements Overpowers the soule from stumbling at discouragements and obstacles Branch 2 that stand in the way This argues God specially present and to have a finger in the worke When another shall be a divell to himselfe to disswade himselfe from God by casting the difficulties alleadging farmes oxen and wife to hold him off and by framing to himselfe many Lions in the way so that if he goes yet it is as a Beare to the stake to heare the word if he heares once he neglects oft lo when God stirs his heart he shall feel such a strong perpetuall moover within him that these are nothing with him he beats them off as flies he feeles such a fire of purpose and bent in his heart to seeke after God as if he thought some pearle were there to be had he cannot finde in his heart to leave off hearing praying musing questioning and using all helpes which are in his power till he have felt the worke of them in himselfe Naaman heere had his dismaiments yet the Lord by a secret hand of his owne held him on asswaged his rage and set his servants on worke Gal. 1.17 Act. 9 till he had effected the cure When the Lord had Paul on the hooke once he suffered him not to slug out the worke till he had finished it Act. 9. Thirdly the Lord disposes of all outward occasions He disposes of all outward occasions both remooving them which let and framing them which helpe which lead to Branch 3 his ends and both remooves the opposites and accomodates unites and chaines together the meanes that the end be not frustrated Notable is that I noted Act. 10. of Peter who was no way like to goe with the servants to Cornelius as being an heathen what doth the Lord workes Peters heart from that objection and so from unwillingnesse nay more he doth make the one privy to the others want and as in a vision Paul saw Ananias comming toward him to open his eies so on the other side Ananias in a vision is informed of Pauls praying and waiting upon the Lord for remedy God brings both together and sutes the one with willingnesse to be holpen and the other with readinesse to helpe so they were mutually fitted to do and receive good each to and from other So in Pauls case when he was to go to Ananias how unwilling was he to be the instrument of settling satisfying him Therefore the Lord steps in and remooves that let and tells him he is a speciall man for his own use So oftimes when parents friends Minister himselfe are discouragements to a poore novice how doth the Lord foreseeing such a blur turne the eies of Crocodiles to Doves eyes alleniate and draw the hearts of fathers to the children what faire way doth he open Againe how doth the Lord dispose of such requisite circumstances as concurre to the ends without which it could not have been effected Sometime by bringing a man into such a place or Towne where a faithfull Ministry resideth sometimes into some such family where the name of God is called upon faithfully sometime preparing for a man such a dwelling as is compassed about with good neighbours whose example and helpe may be a loadstone unto him John 4. as the woman of Samaria being her selfe first drawne from her scoffing to beleeving drew all her kindred So oftentimes the Lord by shaking one maine Pillar-stone in an house causes many little stones to rattle downe after So many a young Scholler by a godly Tutor many a young youth or maid by a religious Master or Mistresse many an ignorant novice by marrying a good wife or husband and into a godly family growes to be religious All these are gracious preventions And from the same preventing mercy it is that the Chaine and Coherence of the meanes one after another is so united and so continued by the Lord that whereas the breaking off of any one might split and marre the frame the Lord holds all together for the effecting thereof As here except all the foure premises had held Naaman might have beene easily defeated of his issue But the Lord suffers no one linke of the chaine to breake Fourthly the Lord most aptly and fitly accommodates all circumstances Branch 4 by his providence to consort and combine to such ends disposing of apt condition Accommodates all circumstances fittly to the end age season person place and other opportunities If Naaman being so great had not beene made little by the condition of a leper could he have stooped so low as the Prophet All are not so fit to bee dealt with by every instrument some more are drawne by a still and softly voice others by the thundring of terror the Lord suits meet persons to meet objects that so the worke might goe forward Not alway the same person is apt to bee wrought upon by all occasions As when the minde is filled with businesse all that is spoken is as it were spoken in a mans cast Luke 10.40 Martha being cumbred with much serving was as a full vessell for the time all which had beene put into her had run over Therefore Mary whose minde was free and empty was fitter to sit at Christs feet and profit All places are not alike to all sorts While children live under their Parents wing at ease and liberty they minde nothing that good is perhaps being abroad and being put to it marked and noted
in their conversation and behaviour seeing that the world is hard and living under strict government they begin to looke about them and to digest those counsells which they have long beene taught Every age is not so capable when yeares have hardened a man in his evill course he is farre worse to be wrought upon then in his younger time having lesse experience of evill So that the Lord takes men in the fittest season in youth and prevents the unfittest and so for all other circumstances Fifthly the Lord mercifully stops and prevents such accidents as if Branch 5 they tooke effect would be like to hinder the worke of his providence Prevents such evills as might hinder his ends Thus the Lord prevents an ill marriage an unapt yoke-fellow when as yet there was far more likelihood that way then any other Yet the Lord crosses and defeats it so that it shall not take effect so also he stops and cuts off some such companion by death either friend or husband or wife or the like whose example or counsell might possibly have hindred the good of the other party 1 Sam. 25. Abigail being freed from Nabal was at liberty for David and so many a well-minded childe over-ruled by a crosse and peevish father or mother when God removes that tye is at more liberty to enjoy the meanes and to profite So that the Lord when he intends any thing doth alway remove out of his way the lets which might hinder his worke Lastly and especially the Lord doth put life successe and blessing into Branch 6 all such courses and meanes from first to last Puts life and successe into all occurrences as are offered by his providence that they shall take effect and leave the impression of grace behinde them Because God meant well to the Prodigall hee so ordered the matter that even contraries seemed to worke together for the best God oft workes by contraries Luke 14. If he had kept still with his father ten to one hee had been as the other brother But even the misery which he felt which might have been the next way to have made him desperate and to have rusht himselfe upon vile courses to his ruine or caused him to have laid violent hands upon himselfe yet by Gods dispensation wrought him to an utter loathing of his bad wayes and himselfe and to an earnest desire to seeke to his father for pardon Much more then doth the Lord blesse other wayes of sinners which are lesse unlikely as wee see in Naaman here no one passage befell him but brought him one step neerer and when hee had his owne desire that wrought in him such a brokennesse of spirit that he was thereby fitted to receive a better boon from God with more thankfulnes So that poor blinde man Ioh. 9. John 9. whom Christ purposed to save although at his first cure of blindnesse he was not converted yet the Lord was so effectuall in his cure so brake his heart by that love that when hee was most bitterly reproached and excommunicated for confessing him yet he gave not in nor shranke but convinced them with shame and put them to silence and when our Saviour had him upon that advantage he meets him againe in his streight and by a few words speaking to him converted him But these may serve Now for use of the point it is manifold First it is terror and admonition Vse 1 to all brutish prophane ones and base hypocrites Terror with admonition to such as are under no prevention but alway at one point who walke securely in their way some neglecting all meanes others using the most holy and effectuall meanes in a meere formall manner Both of them justly left at large by the Lord to themselves so that nothing workes upon conscience But even as the Wind-mill turning in her round every way yet stirre not out of their place so is it with them after ten twenty yeares they are where they were the first day no step neerer God but many further off For why alas they are farre from acknowledging any preventing grace of God in their course They know no other means but to goe to Church and present themselves among others in the place and so home againe As for a providence to prevent them to bow and sway their hearts to any tendernesse and towardlinesse to see themselves drawn by God to know themselves to see into their nature to abhorre it and embrace all opportunities for their owne spirituall furtherance to salvation they are farre from it And as they live so they dye And if the Lord at any time do scare their conscience or move them to any better thoughts of their wayes yet alas they have no intimation from God of any mercy therein are soone weary of them they vanish as they came And when they looke backe into their course past their youth education company marriage dwelling Ministery or the like alas they cannot speake of any moving of heart stopping their lewd course still they are in their thorough-fare heare like blockes are wearie of good company shun all opportunities of good for feare of being better glad when they can wash off good duties and winde themselves out of all occasions for heaven Alas poore wretches yee shall not need put off with one hand that mercie which you cannot pull on with both It must bee singular grace which must prevent you if ever you come to good But to goe against the edge of providence thinking your selves happiest when yee are out of the element of it is fearfull Doth it not sting you that you have felt so little of Gods prevention in all your wayes So many of your yeares time acquaintance not onely stirred but converted to God since your beginning and you still as saplesse and senselesse as ever Doth it not disquiet you to see all is too little for your ease will world lusts and vanities What have yee no sighes nor sobs in your dreams and upon your beds how it shall fare with you in the day of wrath and that there will be bitternesse in the end 2 Sam. 2. What I pray you is more miserable then to live without God in the world And who live so but such as feele not one pull by the eare one knock at the doore of your hearts or if they doe forget and shake it off with as little savour or regard as pigges tread upon pearles Alas if hee who is the authour of the Scriptures of Ministery of Sacraments of long-suffering of afflictions hath never yet cast the least seed of light or sparke of heat into you which should teach you to acknowledge these ordinances and administrations of his and to tremble at them Are you worse then Divels Application of the terror by admonition Therefore I pray you consider of what I say If the Lord raise not up the North winde to blow upon your spirits to encline and perswade them it
will be long enough ere you of your selves stirre one inch off your own ground If he alter not your intentions sure it is you will intend small good to your selves but please your selves in your drousie dead and senselesse way till yee goe hence and be no more Me thinks you should rouze up your selves and moan your selves to the Lord saying Am I the onely dry barren wretch of all others whom thy Spirit should never blow upon whom no mercies crosses or government of thine should ever affect I see O Lord thy steps wheresoever they goe drop fatnesse and thy fingers drop mirrh upon the handle of the doore Cant. 5.5 where thou knockest But I am still a barren desolate creature without any acquaintance with thee in thy wayes And for the second sort of such as have felt the Lord comming toward them in sundry wayes and that hee hath not left them without witnesse but by his Word his workes by death of wife or husband or by good company or losse of children estate name many privie and secret warnings of their conscience hath checked them or offered them many meanes of good and drawne their hearts thereby but they have shaken them off as a dog doth a blow on the head That sometime in such houses and places as they have dwelt in sometimes in hearing some searching Sermons or by the offer of Christian yoke-fellowes or by other occasions Such as God hath prevented beware of dallying the Lord hath solicited them earnestly to turn and repent howbeit it is with them as with Israel in the wildernesse whose carcasses were scattered therein they have tempted him seen his works but to no purpose for the Lord is vexed with them for their stubbornnesse and their hard and rebellious hearts which will not know God nor come in Oh! beware lest this patience of God which should have drawne you to repentance doe not harden your hearts to utter destruction To both sorts I say this Know it if those whom the Lord means to save he wil be alway busie about them to accommodate all things to their calling and conversion what a wofull case are they in who have all their lives long either seen no finger of his in meaning them good or else escaped his fingers most subtilly and slily as fast as he hath pursued them Doubtlesse for ought can appeare the Lord meanes them no good if they had been sheep belonging to his fold he would never have suffered them to erre and lose themselves so deeply in their lusts but hee would have recalled them But his not suffering the breath of his spirit one whit to stirre in them doubtlesse he meanes they shall nuzzle up themselves in a dead senselesse estate unto perdition Oh! what beds of ease doe you lye upon that you should take one nights rest two nights till you finde your selves out of this misery Secondly this should teach us to adore this great God and onely wise Vse 2 and that because hee hath the key not of the wombe onely and deeps Instruction Adore the wisedome and love of God in his preventing grace Jerem. 10.23 clouds and the grave but of the hearts of the sonnes of men Hee onely can order their courses wayes and intentions to their owne greatest good and his glory It is not in man to order his owne way the heart and purposes of men are their owne but the dispositions thereof are from the Lord as the issues so the preparations to life and death are in his hand It is no priviledge of a Prince over his subjects nor of a parent over his children nor of husband over wife They have authority to over-rule the bodies the outward behaviour and duties of such as are under them But for the secret over-swaying of intentions and turning them from their owne to his way it is onely the Lords prerogative It is with mans intentions as with the body of a man in a ship who walkes upon the hatches from East to West Yet the motion of the ship being contrary carries the man the way of her owne motion neverthelesse This should therefore breed in us singular reverence of God and provoke us to magnifie him both with our prayses and with our prayers With our praises first By praises As the Church in the Psalme having professed that shee had seene goings of God both towards their fathers and themselves Psal 68 24. Deut. 8. in wildernesse and Canaan that he might humble and try all in their heart subjoynes presently The men singers that goe before and the women singers after Psal 123.1 and praise the Lord. If the Lord had not been on my side shouldest thou say in disposing every way for my conversion I had never been brought home But I see that it was the finger of God that when I had run my selfe into desperate company forsaken the counsell of all friends shaped a course to my selfe perhaps to spend my patrimony riotously perhaps to haunt harlots and lewd companions or to travell beyond sea in an humour of discontent to seek my fortunes or to seek the world and implod my self in the dirt and dunghill of covetousnesse or to mâ—â—ch my selfe resolutely with one whom I fancied onely for her out-sidâ—â—ayâ—â—g Give mee her for she pleases me well then did the Lord provide better for mee then I deserved turn mine intentions quite off divert them to serious thoughts of mine estate prepare a good wife a peaceable life in marriage good friends good Ministery and turne mee from the pit I sought a good frame in a blinde corner under an Idoll the Lord tooke him away sent a better and tooke me napping in my hole and brought me home to himselfe Job 33. No good soule that hath tasted these preventions of God can bee silent Sundry passages of preventing providence one prayses God that living in a desolate prophane corner of the Country in the practice of drunkennesse and lewdnesse the Lord sent a friend by providence to the house where he dwelt who by his sober caniage and report of the fruit of the Gospel in other parts brake me off from my sinfull life bred a zeal after God good means by which I was haled out of my dungeon to live under the Ministery in Goshen where I was convinced by the light of truth and converted to God Another comes in and saith O Lord if I had rusht upon such a match lighted upon such a Ministery I had been quite lost thou plantedst me better As Psal 80. the Church blesses God for pulling her from Egypt where she grew as a lilly among thornes into a better soile So should we adore Gods preventing us accommodating and suting occasions crossing lets giving strength to the meanes and overruling purposes as no doubt the woman John 4. going to her kinsfolke and saying Come see a man who hath told me all magnified mercy which finding her in a cursed scornefull
and prophane way stopt her and changed her heart Paul to be sure did so 1 Tim. 1.17 having shewed how God found him a persecutor blasphemer and wronger of innocents yet abounded in mercy and called him home Oh! he cannot wonder enough at it tells it out to others and himselfe concludes Now to the immortall invisible olny wise God to sway all to his ends be all honour for ever yea and we should never cease to call upon ours aswell as our selves to doe it when I sent thee forth my child as Iacob to Laban the Lord did order thy journey for the best defeated thee of that thou wouldest and diverted thee to that which was farre safer and better for thee Dost thou not see how hee leaves others to themselves doth not prevent them with any softnesse and tendernesse provides not well suffers them to run wild and to tire themselves in their owne vanities Thus good Naomi perceiving that God had heard her prayers for poore Ruth a stranger Ruth 3. to rivet her into the Church and make her the mother of Davids grandfather provokes her to wonder saying who art thou my daughter And hearing her to entitle God to the worke she confirmes her to trust God for afterward Branch 2 And secondly it should stir up in us prayer for our selves and others that the good hand of our God may alway attend and overrule our intentions and waies for good Our prayers should succeed our prayses Gen. 24.12 Eliezer beleeving the Lord to be such a wise and powerfull disposer fell to prayer that when Rebecca should come out to draw water for the cattell and for himselfe the Lord would prevent her with such thoughts as might promote and succeed his enterprise So should we in our journeyes travailes attempts of weight changes of our estate going to the congregation meeting good company beseech him that his good haâ—d might appeare in all these and through all the occasions of the day for the furthering and not dismaying us in our holy course See Job 1. end Yea even for others we should earnestly beg and say Oh Lord this day my husband goeth to such a Sermon Thou knowest he lookes at nothing save his owne ends rests upon his smooth civill bottome that he is no grosse person his wordly wit ease and pleasure are the wheels to carry him on Oh Lord oft have I begd mercy for him to open his heart and change him Now prevent him Lord let thy Minister be in his bosome convince him lay some block of thine to stop him Ezek. 14.3 remoove the stumbling block of his owne iniquity send him home more humble then he went though thy spirit blow never so weakly yet let it blow and by little and little bring him home Let me be no let to him and thy worke My unquiet heart is ready to discontent my selfe and so the husbands to the wife when I see matters goe amisse and so give way to passions unkinde and unsavoury words But alas The worke is thy prevention So for others Lord when I send forth my children to the University or to service I hope all shall be well They shall meet thy good hand to prosper them they shall be brought nearer to thee in knowledge and thou wilt blesse studies tutor company to bring them to better passe But all is in thee I have hitherto been too confident they have miscarried and stumbled at base examples Lord now at last prevent them for good Gen. 43.13.14 and lay such hold upon them that they may not slip Iacob sending his sonne Benjamin to Egypt little thinking what God intended yet intreated God to blesse them and to send his Angel before them and to give them favour in the sight of the man The Lord heard him in that and added a further blessing for he so hampered them by Iosephs wise austerity and policy that their conscience began to check them for their selling him and so by degrees their sinne comming to light they could crie out God had found them all out in their basenesse Some of them incestuous as Reuben and Iuda others murtherers as Simon and Levi and the rest like them Cap. 45. but in likelihood this became the first step to their reclaiming Oh! so should we beg Lord we send them out into the wide world or wee are to goe to our long home and leave them behinde among Lions Beares and Wolves and Foxes Lord let them find favour with thy Majesty let thy good hand goe but with them All pray for wealth and prosperity for their children Psal 4.6.7 But Lord shew them thy countenance and that they are of thine Elect and therefore within thy Covenant wheresoever they become prevent them with grace let thy Ministers and people love them let all turne to their good their services their dwellings tradings marriages Ministery and let them see that none can finde out any thing after thee that thou art in all because things could not have any way framed better for them then they shall finde Stop all lets and crossings either from within their proud vain hearts or from without Satan his subtilty and the baites or snares of this world Adde so both these It should breed humiliation in our hearts It should hold us in an holy awe and reverence of God and teach us to set his Crowne upon his head when we see t is not all our counsells Ministery be it never so powerfull education thought and care which can prevent our owne hearts or the hearts of ours or others who belong to us with any goodnesse we may pray and commend them to God as Isaac and Rebecca did Iacob in that sad pilgrimage of his to Padan The Lord it must be who must succeed him Gen. 28.1.2.3 who must encourage him at Luz and set forward his journey with prospering So that this should abase us in all best attempts Salomon could not with all his wisedome foretell whether a foole or a wise man should inherit all his travailes I confesse it ought to stay us from discontent Eccle. 2.19 if God have not heard us for our children but suffered them to run riot if we have as Iob jealously offered sacrifice for them and commended them to the good hand of God but all this will not exempt us from greefe when we see them scapethrifts and unhappy ones when we doe not commend them to the word of his grace we may thanke our selves if they thrive not yet in our best and most solicitous desires wee must not rest satisfied in our endeavours but still humbly tremble under the power of that God whose prerogative it is to prevent them with mercy to accommodate all occasions to stop all obstacles and to succeed all helpes for their good Oh! the woefull ruine of thousands who have bin children of the choysest prayers teares cost and care should teach us to lie low before the Lord in this case
3.9 to confesse God hath done much for thee and wish thy portion when God shall visit them Vse 3 Also it is admonttion to worldly wise ones to such as commonly carry Branch 1 the repute of learned ones and the like That the Lord confuteth wise ones by simple ones Admonit It should cause such to tremble and seeke to bee as little in your owne eyes as they seeme great to others For otherwise those excellent accomplishments wherein they excell others may become snares Their priviledge may become their prejudice Wise ones must become fooles that they may bee wise in Gods matters A learneder man then any of us could tremble at this meditation The idiots and fooles rise up and snatch the Kingdome by violence from us and we with all our learning are thrust downe to hell Oh! how sad is this Once a Princesse beholding a learned Civilian lame of his feet said Thy deformity is our great enormity meaning that he was disabled to stand in her presence But when the Lord shall say to many wise and great ones your excellent parts are my detriment what a sad greeting will that be Oh! it had beene better for me if thou hadst beene poore lame an Idiot then great and jolly Surely thou mightst have honoured me more with meaner gifts thine heart being lowly then with all these thou being so proud The best use that many put their parts to being this to strengthen themselves and others in their profanenesse luxury ambition and tyranny Oh! therefore be a foole that thou maist be wise Let all thy parts stoop yea be too little for Christ to preach to professe to honour him And bee afraid lest otherwise the Lord shall overlooke thee and say Oh this man was too bigge too stout too stately to beleeve too great to get through such a strait gate as heaven is Camels cannot go through needles eyes Oh pray God to little thee to pare off thy superfluities Oh Lord take out this proud heart of mine puft up with gifts experience skill wisdome Oh cleanse them all make me humble and betrust me againe with them and then being shaven and washed all shall serve thee and I shall lose all my excellency in thy glory thou shalt eclipse all my parts that my humility may honour thee My deformity shall bee no detriment to thee but I shall give thee the glory in the treading of my best readings arts skill elocution and whatsoever humane perfection under thy feet Lord accept me and doe what thou wilt with me so thou keepe me from all sacriledge and robbing thee of thy due Tit. 1.15 To the pure all things shall be pure if thou hast purged my parts 2 Tim. 2.21 I shall be a vessell prepared for every good use and as fire and water are good servants but ill masters so when my spirit and streame shall be wholly carried in thine I shall be I may be trusted with thy gifts to honour the giver Oh that my words could reach to many Ministers of worthy parts and endowments of whom some vanish in the base abuse of their liberties Caveat to Ministers not to abuse their parts to ease and pampering of the flesh the creature of meat and drinke of recreations and pastimes of apparell and fashions maintaining themselves and their wives in pompe and pride of life to the destruction of soules Others fall to excesse in drinking base company lurking in their dens either in their Colledges or in the Country utterly unprofitable Cretians slow bellies evill beasts Tit. 1.12 as that Poet said filling their panches and surfetting upon pleasures Others insatiable of livings and ambitious of preferments Others setting up their gifts above Christ and chusing to preach ten words without understanding rather then one to the peoples reach Alas is this the fruit of your studies and parts your abilities and gifts that when you should in humility feed the flock of God you despise them and set them at naught 1 Pet. 5.2 and honour your selves with Gods spoyle Beware lest the Lord pursue you and make you regorge these unsavoury morsels of yours with horrour and detestation or else revenge himselfe of you for all your sacriledge when there shall bee no remedy Then shall you wish as some have done that you had beene as poore and silly ones as walke upon the earth so you were free of robbing God of his glory Greeke Ebrew Latine Fathers all learning is good But if it have lost her savour and be as the oyntment which stinkes by dead flyes Luke 14 34. ult what shall it be good for Surely to be cast into the streets and to be troden upon yea to bee made the just scorne of men who never made conscience to reserve to God the entire service of his gifts but fed and prided themselves with his colours 1 Sam. 2.14 Hophni and Phinees would thrust their forke into Gods kettle and steal his due but no sacrifice could satisfie for such sin the Lord sware he would receive no paiment for their ransomtil he utterly rooted them out Seek not therfore your selves set not up your names and parts to be idolized scorn not those whose diligence pains in the Church exceed yours learne of them disdaine them not God doth great things by poor means but seldome receives honour from such as seeke to get up into their owne saddle by Gods stirrop and by their preaching the sacred truth of God hoyse up their owne sayles and out-run the Lord by their owne pride wonder not nor fret that you lose the hearts of Gods people and that they turne from you John 10.27 for his sheepe heare his voice and not the voice of a stranger Alter the property of the unsanctified parts and let them be devoted to an humble service of his Sanctuary Exod. 35.23 and then your gold and blue silke shall be accepted else Goats haire and Badgers skins shall bee preferred before you And to end my counsell consider but this although you should repent before you dye yet you must bee saved as it were by fire 1 Cor. 3.13.15 God will not suffer any of your hay and stubble to cleave to his foundation of pearles This is the best of it your worke must burne by the censure of Gods purity but if your worke burne not by your repentance both your selves and your worke too shall burne through your impenitency Vse 3 Secondly let me adde one Caveat to such as make conscience to improve Branch 2 their parts and excellencies to the best ends in their Ministery and labours Godly Ministers must not onely use but also lay downe their parts and services if God so require I confesse it might beseeme my selfe to learne of some of them yet let me speake one word Beware my Brethren lest having seemed to escape a gulfe ye be drowned in a shallow Renounce even those gifts also by which you seeme to
To teach us the price of grace which of us would ever thinke grace to be such a thing as it is which of us would not wax wanton with God and forget our former condition which of us would pâ—â—se mercy and conversion as the inestimable free gift of a gracious God who might have left us at large to the corruptions of the world and the depth of the Divell But when we see how the Lord crosseth us what blocks are in our way and how hard it is to be vessels prepared for mercy to be clensed from our evill savour which would defile the grace of God then we wonder that ever the Lord should bestow any mercy upon us at all And so we walke in the sense and savour of it more humbly and thankfully afterward we suspect our base hearts we are jealous of forgoing it earnest to pursue it glad of the least dram of it and why we know the price and worth of it In this frailty and corruption of nature we can beare no great measures of grace by good experience of that it cost us to compasse it Where is there a man who is meet to enjoy any great matter from God either outward blessing or spirituall favour without pride and swelling So that the Lord is faint alway to be much in preparing such as he intends to bestow any great matter upon How long was David in preparing by the Lord See 1 Sam. from chap. 15. to the end of the book ere he came to the kingdome Between his first anointing and his Crowning how many turn againes and pursuits had he Surely as the Merchant of the East Indies who ventures for rich wares and pretious commodities hath an hard taske of it goes through strange hazards by pirates by tempests by winds by rocks and by continuall feare both going for them and comming home with them and all to teach him the price of them that he may after enjoy them more soberly so is it here The Lord is faine to prolong the day of his mercy and pardon and to bring the soul through many adventures to teach it to enjoy mercy without wantonnesse giddinesse lightnesse and boasting A drunken man can beare strong drinke or wine with his weake braine aswell as our slight hearts can entertaine grace we wax vaine and frothy idle and empty as not knowing what we have received from God nor how sober and wise we ought to be in the use of it 2 Cor. 1.2.3 So Paul the Lord meant to betrust him with deep revelations But before that how was he faine to buffet him what bitter greetings had he of his vile heart and how was he abased in his owne feeling And why Surely to teach him to walke humbly not to swell nor disdaine others but to distinguish the excellency of Gods grace from the basenesse of his owne spirit As we see it to fall out in the disposition of seasons and weather Simil. while the winter season is in her setling and height although there be a generall coldnesse of the aire yet it is mixed with some calmnesse and moderation But when once the spring tide is approaching we see what inequality of weather there is winds raines tempests and blustering all to purge the sky and to bring down the winterly distempers of it that the coast being cleare the sweet season of the spring and summer may succeed Just so it is with the soule perhaps while it lies under the winter of her owne desolation she makes a shift and hath no great chaines upon her as being under the hatches of misery But if once the Lord cause the spring time of life and conversion to approach strange it is what tempests clouds and weather arise the heart growes full of feares corruption rebells by occasion of the Law and selfe rises up in armes by occasion of the Gospel a marvailous change appeares in the soule through terrors bondage doubtings resistings cavellings and distempers of a base heart loth to leave that hell of hers which by custome became her heaven But all this is but as it should be the Lord proceeds gradually and by steps delayes the worke of grace and all that the coast may be somewhat cleared before hand and the soule prepared to welcome the season of mercy with calmenes humblenesse and modesty To conclude the Lord is Reason 4 most wise in thus trying his owne servants before he convert them To discerne them from such as are not his owne to the end that he may discerne them from such as are not of his number For why when hypocrites once come to see the conditions of grace what attendance upon means what knowledge and sense of sin what deep convincing of conscience is required how humble hungry painfull earnest the Lord lookes the soule should be that desires grace how plain-hearted in her aimes and prising it above all liberties how willing to sell all and glad it may to buy this pearle lo their rotten carnall hearts fly off and abhorre to stoop so low upon any hopes They thought heaven might be compassed with small adoe and that they might have it and their owne wills too But when they see it will not be nay more that many a poore honest soule is faine to waite long at Gods gate till he see it a fit season to bestow his grace upon it alas poore wretches they never were either so pinched with sinne nor affected with mercy as to bestow halfe the cost for it although they might be sure of it and therefore they fall off either altogether and so turne backe to their lusts or else if light and compulsion of conscience scare them from that they still abide as they are in a saplesse fulsome and dead course But it is not so with the others Gods true Merchants of the best pearles who know the true worth of them will not be beaten off by such discouragements but but with Naaman in the verses following rather then they will forfet all their hopes and carry back their lepers skin With them See Mat. 13.44 they will put their lives in their hands or rather themselves in the Lords to deale with them as he please and whatsoever difficulties or delayes they meet with they will beare them seeing they are for the best all shall end well By waiting the Lord will appeare at last but by giving him over they are sure to perish Oh! there is great use of this course how many desperate hypocrites doth the Lord trie hereby discovering their basenesse rage and discontent and how doth he comfort his owne faithfull poore servants that have waited upon his salvation assuring them it was his owne grace that sustained them in such delayes and difficulties to hold on Vse Instruction admonition to all Novices in grace not to be dismaid for difficulties The use whereof should be instruction and admonition to all Naamans and novices in regeneration and the worke of
conversion first that they make no other account before hand but to finde difficulties and affronts in their way although perhaps they set forward at first with faire winde and great hopes yet that both winde and tide may turne against them before they have done Let not him that puts on his harnis boast as he that puts them off Rather make account of the hardest before and be armed against it be not discouraged nor faint in the onset for I tell thee the worst of Gods way is easier then the best of thy former course of lust and ignorance the pathes whereof are pleasant yet going downe to hel And being warned thus it will be halfe an arming to thee it will coole thy carnall heat send thee to God for strength and make thee out of savor of thy selfe-attempts Secondly when thou shalt meet with such hardnesses in the way wonder not nor shrinke backe say thus I entred upon regeneration with this proviso and laboured to cast the hardest If easier termes be offred by Gods providence if Satan be kept off or corruption held under or the work made sweeter then I feared let me count it my gain and a portion which many of my brethren want But if I meet with brunts let me not desist and goe backe to Egypt but proceed on towards Canaan hoping that yet the issue shall be good Say thus now the Lord is trying of me of what mettle I am made even as he tryed those souldiers that sooped water Judg. 7. or lapped it now is the season for me to looke about me now let me abhorre to play the timeserver hypocrite staggerer and revolter from Gods way because I meet with offences in it If now I turne away and be distempered vowing that I will never goe on one step further nor strike one stroke more I shall shew my selfe and the mettle I am made of but if I shall meekely devour and digest these affronts then I shall shew a patient wayting heart upon God and one that esteemes grace above all my labour and a rich bargaine upon the price If Naaman had beene aware what God intended him before hand hee had said no lesse God tryes me by this delay God make me meek and keep me from rage But because he was yet ignorant therefore hee must bee conceived as one whose passions and anger the Lord meant to cover and pardon in due time and therefore now over-ruled for his good afterward Quest What difficulties are they which Gods travellers endure But some may aske what difficulties doe ye meane I answer such as these Many enter upon conversion upon great hopes and affections stirred up by the Gospell But after a while perhaps it pleases God to shew them their faces in such a glasse of terror and confusion that their hopes are turned into horror for some good space together Answ Manifold 1. Inward And in this condition they are tempted perhaps to avoide wounds of conscience by making away themselves if God staid them not Others feel a raging heart against the Law and Minister for searching their sores and convincing them so deeply if God turned it not to good after and thereby tawed them not more throughly by their owne corruption Others are in consult with themselves whether they were not better abandon all hearing and praying any longer and returne to their joviall company and pleasures of sinne againe that so they may shun this sharpe Schoolemaster by playing the trewants and so be at some ease except God shew them that this discipline as untoothsome as it is yet is wholesome Others stick long at this knot having a slavish sad melancholy spirit delighting in fullennesse and feare especially if sad crosses mixe themselves with inward heavinesse as ill marriage debts pursuits ill successe and the like They thinke God frownes more upon them then in the former daies of their ignorance Others are as much amazed on the other side because their terrors were never so great as others nor were their consciences so deepely affrighted with wrath and hell and therefore not duely humbled Others feele a great measure of unmortified lust and filth to dwell in them as wrath pride hollownesse revenge and to dog them so that they cannot thinke that such poyson and mercy to pardon can possibly stand together Others mistake the doctrine of preparation to faith thinking it to stand in the greatnesse of measure deepe sorrow breaking of heart deepe streights and being at a deepe losse great longings and thirstings after mercy and so of the rest It is long ere they come to see that there must bee a seed of the Gospell wrought ere these be or that they serve rather for marks of the spirit of grace then any furtherers of it from any thing in themselves Others feeling these wrought in them yet when they heare that faith only can put them into a safe estate they begin to feare that although they are prepared by the condition yet the Lord will not performe the effect of faith for them forgetting that Gods meaning in the one was to worke the other or at least thinke it will be a long time first and they shall be out of all heart ere then or they may dye ere the Lord make an end of his worke Others conceive amisse of the promise thinking it to be offred to such as can take hold of it by themselves not knowing that the strength is Gods and not theirs Esay 27.5.6 and that the offer comming frō the strength of a satisfaction to justice doth strengthen the Lord to make and tender it to a poore soule that needs it and concurs with that soule strongly to fasten it thereon as the due portion belonging to it Others are marvailously disquieted about their Election doubting that all their mournings and travailes are to no purpose because they strive against Gods will not remembring that secretes are for God not for for them and their surest markes come from the obeying of the revealed will Others when the fruit is come to the birth have no strength to bring forth it seemes impossible or hard or unlikely that such base ones should ever beleeve it were too good for so unworthy ones and in truth men looke wholly at their owne ends so much and so little at the glory which the Lord chiefly seekes to his grace that they little muse of the worke as becomming the omnipotency and free bounty of a reconciled God but of that scurffe they feele in themselves These are inward Others are outward affronts which meet with the soule 2. Outward some are molested grievously with sad motions and temptations and conflicts from Satan buffeting of them and stopping of their way by thoughts of feare injected into them as by Atheisme doubting of God of the truth of Scripture or with such qualmes and combats as doe arise up as sparkles from the over deepe terrors of conscience or the endlesse risings of their corrupt hearts
our families and living quietly with our wives hearing Sermons and the like But the Lord who will have us knowne to be such as feare God and eschew evill and declare our selves to be further off from mortall ones then so will take a course to try us further what is in our heart We see a lowd winde may long blow upon a rotten tree on the good side and the tree make a shift to stand But at last there comes a shrewd right winde and gets into the hollow of the tree Similie and affronts it on the rotten side and then it puts hard to it ten to one if it lay it not under feet Let us not then fence the hedge where it is highest but where it is lowest strengthen the feeble knees and rectifie that which is crooked seeke not praise to our selves for our gifts and labours but know there is a greater worke lies upon us to stick to our tacklings when the Lord tries us if God will bereave us of our onely beloved lusts and take from us the pleasure of our heart and that which is pretious in our eyes as he told Ezekiel if hee so bring it about Ezek. 24.16 that we cannot have him and our credit ease and carnall content also then let us consider what we have to doe and whether we will bee faithfull or no Now is our day of triall now to magnifie our selves and seek applause and spare our owne selves for ease for outward respects is unseasonable Thinke of these matters ere they come let us not be so busie with cockle shells and toyes upon the sea side that we forget the tide and so be swept away all on the sudden Despise not Gods trialls nor put the thought of preparing for them out of our minds as matters of lesse import thinke not to carry our course so smoothly as that we shall never be moved lest God gaster us with some such enemies as come with the necessity of armed men upon naked and unprovided ones and so make each veine in our hearts to ake because of our rashnesse Beware lest they make us examples unto others of more wisdome and prevention who might have given example to others of self-deniall uprightnesse of heart and trusting God in the greatest streights For surely if wee do thus seeke to save our lives Matth. 16.26 we shall lose them and no great thanke for our labour and that which we have preferred before God and peace of conscience shall come out at our nostrils as most irkesome vomit Amplification of the point John 21. The day of triall will not bee to us as the day of our freedome and ease but as our Saviour tells Peter When thou wert young thou girdedst thy selfe and wentst where thou wouldest but when thou art old another shall gird thee and lead thee whither thou wouldest not Prepare we for that day in our day of liberty Know that Halcyon dayes will not last alway but it is meet that offences and stumbling-blockes bee laid in our wayes to try us And commonly when we thinke our selves most stapled in our ease and exempted from trials then are they at our heeles So that it were our best wisedome to suspect our selves most when our way is most pleasant Suspect trials most when our estate seemes to be calmest and our neast warmest and best feathered Iob did thus and when sorrow came upon him in the midst of his prosperity yet if came not before it was feared Use wee our best outward contents as if we used them not and so the forgoing of them shall not be so excessively distastfull nor lye in our way as stumbling-blockes when God shall try us Behold them as things which may give us the slip when we least looke for it Nero that tyrant having a faire woman to his Empresse would sometimes take her by the necke or chin with these bloudy words O goodly face and necke but when I list it shall be cut off Such an Item should we give our best contents lest perhaps if we trust them to far they suddenly betray us to sorrow in forgoing or an ill conscience in retaining Oh faire mercies but when God will they shall bee cut off And not so onely but labour wee to stand upon good bottome and to trade not like banquerupts with other mens stockes who when they breake are found never to have been their owne men but with our own stocke be it never so little if it be good that is the love of God soundnesse of heart to the truth good conscience and faith unfained These being joyned with zeale and courage in the defence of a good cause will be armour of proofe without and a continual feast within whatsoever our affronts and discouragements shall be Faith shall then beare us out as a shield beares off blowes and assure us that let this cursed world bee never so disastrous yet God will keep us from absolute straits and so order it that wee shall not depart from his feare nor forsake his covenant They say that the Bezor that creature which hath that cordiall stone being hard hunted by the hounds and knowing by instinct also what it is she is hunted for not her skin nor carcasse but her stone will bite off her privities and leave them to the dogges to save her life And the like I have heard some affirme of the Fox that being catcht by the legge in a snare she wil gnaw it off flesh bones to escape with her life Let us take heed of such policie to wit when our pretious conscience is pursued which to some Nimrods is a more pretious thing then the pretious life of a man to an harlot then to bite it off and throw it to such Beagles Prov. 6.26 to save our skin carcasse They will make themselves as much or more sport in rejoycing at our flesh and nakednesse Judg 16.25 Gen. 37.30 then the Philistins did at Sampson their enemy and when we have lost that Jewell as poor Reuben spake of Ioseph how shall we behold the face of Iacob without confusion Or what shall it profit us to fish with a golden hook for a poor fish and lose it for our labour In vain is a net laid for that which hath wing or the deceitfull meat of the wicked ruler set before us to snare us Prov. 22.1.2.3 when we are jealous of our appetites and put our knife to our throats Let us also to conclude walke in this dangerous world Conclusion of all with admonition as a man would walke in a place full of snares laid to catch him Not onely with no purpose of committing evill but with a full purpose and armed minde not to commit it Watch we to the occasions of triall Seeing our way is so strawed with snares let us watch and bee armed which are offered us small ones may discover us to bee weake if unarmed when strong ones shall not
the fittest way as he thought for that purpose and being mistaken in that is glad to heare of his errour and to mend it speedily 4. He abaseth himselfe below his condition so farre as to stand at the Prophets doore to crouch and creepe in the sense of his disease for the cure thereof with exceeding reverence to the Prophet All which although they might seem onely naturall effects of a man under trouble yet being orderly steps to a greater worke in Gods purpose and some of them in a sort religious acts of one that acknowledged a divine power to heale him doe argue that somewhat was in him toward the effect And yet loe here steps in a techie toy that is Yet crossed by self conceit a toy and prich his prejudicate and forestalled heart conceited against the meane appointed by God and this was that he looked to be healed another way more easie present and familiar to his humour How viz. that Elisha himselfe would come forth and by applying his hand to the place worke the miracle And this marred all the former attempts and besides hindred him first from marking the message which contained a plaine easie mercifull and familiar way of healing with a charge from God to wash and a direct promise of cure thereby without any colour or exception all which so solemnly delivered might very well have pierced an heart not exceedingly prejudiced and deluded both for the reverence of God and for his owne ends If Eglon an heathen King Judg 6. hearing of a charge from God no way assuring him of good was so obeysant as to come off his throne and worship God how much more might Naaman but lo his preconceit letted him from it As also from seeing his false heart full fraught with rage against the Prophet when yet he seemed to stoope so low and doe so much reverence and to conclude from yeelding nakedly to the way of God rather then to lose his labour and carry home his disease and from obeying the Command And just so may the case stand with such as have made as many spirituall steps toward conversion as Naaman did toward his cure They may first be brought to a deepe plunge under sense of sinne and the curse Application of the ground to the doct in hand for the clearing of it What faire hopes men have and that by the word of terror convincing their conscience under this they may be most wearisome and restlesse They may be kept from shaking off their terrour by other objects of pleasure profit or worldly contents they may heare of a remedy by one of wisdomes handmaids like well of the glad tidings long after it make speed towards it neglect no cost means or attendance upon it joy in the turning themselves out of their errours and mistakes and the appearance of more hope of ease they may honor the instrument with exceeding reverence wait at the posts of wisdome not houres or dayes but moneths and quarters thinking long till some seasonable answer come unto them thinking themselves happy that they may speed at last And yet how dashed when all their labour is ended And yet when the point should come to an issue and the fruit to be borne then shall one selfe or other either selfe-ease or selfe-will or selfe-wit and conceit assisted with carnall reason yea selfe-endeavours selfe-devotion selfe-mixtures of her owne with God bereave the soule of all strength to bring forth one or other selfe I say shall step in or be cast in by the divell as the gourd into the pottage to marre all to set the chiefe worke as far behinde as it seemed before to be set forward in so much that the voice of God both commanding to beleeve and promising speedy ease and forgivenesse shall be as a thing farre off And whereas the obedience of faith is or ought to be the upshot of the cure lo this selfe shall so blindefolde the minde and disable the heart from marking pondering and applying the promise thereby as if there were nothing in it whereas in truth all steps toward grace without this are frivolous yeâ— the base heart shall thinke this more frivolous then all the rest stumble at it cavill be discontent and flye off as if it had wrong that her endeavours and paines be not accepted without it which in truth is no other then to quarrell with God that her owne way may not be preferred to his and seeing that may not be rather to choose not to be healed at all but abide still in her old condition then not to prosper by her owne way and device I have desired to open the point at large because I make it the ground of a large doctrine whereof I would have none make question So much for the ground of the text Naamans selfe conceit and ours may differ in the speciall though the same in kind But I foresee that my hearers will by and by run to enquire whether this tech of Naaman be in their brests or no and whether it hath hindred their endeavours and also that all well affected Christians would be loth to lose their labour and sweat if they knew how to prevent it till they have enjoyed the promise And therefore I must tell them that I gather a generall point from a particular Naamans selfe was one branch of many but there be many more all as dangerous to them as this to him Seeing then I thinke it will be desired that they might know the severall sorts of this monster and the markes of this secret else selfe I meane therefore ere I reason or apply the point I will stay a while upon the discovery of the severall sorts of this disease so returne to the point againe if God please in the matter of Application I thinke none will deny that of all other lets of grace and salvation this of selfe is the most dangerous and the reason is because it is most inward and immediate I may say of it as Paul speakes of uncleannesse all other sinnes are without the body but this within a disease of the intrailes and bowels Selfe the most dangerous enemy because most inward and immediate Even so all other lets and enemies of Christ are outward Satan hath many injections temptations by Atheisme by the needlesnesse difficulty yea impossiblenesse of prevailing he hath many base colours to delude the heart withall by the contrariety of Christ to the corrupt spirit of man the world also hath many base and false principles to beat off the heart by as the disdaine of them that are so zealous 1 Cor. 6.18 the erroneous opinions which it hath of Christ and the profession of his truth Others hurt by this most mortally but all these are without and more easily avoided the power of the Word sooner scatters these mists The greatest mischiefe comes from within and were it not for selfe they could not prevaile by all their baits
to containe townes corners and Kingdomes in peace and order which being so extensive a good within her compasse must needs cause men to imagine some excellency therein Fourthly 4. The examples and opinion of men rarely vertuous the rare parts and endowments of such as are thus qualified excelling in shew the vertues of some such as are in an higher ranke of christianity and religion and blemishing their weaker qualities must needs reflect upon them more then ordinary esteeme among such as behold them especially when they shall bewray more bounty liberality compassion and mercy forbearance and patience with other usefull and admired vertues then they who claime the chiefe name goodnesse Fifthly when besides all these Civilities and Moralities 5. Some tincture of religion they adde some varnish and lustre from a tincture of Religion keeping their Church applauding a forme of serving God and discoursing of such matters which although they doe not for any perfiting of their vertues which they â—ount to be their strong hold but onely for complement and formality 6. Similitude with the godly yet hereby they stop the mouthes of any who might brand them with irreligion and prophanenesse Adde hereto the similitude which they seeme to hold with the godly for they also have their slips and errors sometime blemishes of note and vices of deepe dye and alas these have no more and therefore so long as outsides only may hold water there will seeme little difference There are none so bad and base None so bad but some shreds of good may be found in them 2 Sam. 12.27 1 Sam. 11.7 Gen. 27 41. And what use a civill person makes of it but have some shreds of goodnesse in them Ioab a vile cruell and bloody wretch yet a valiant Captaine who fought Gods battels and was usefull to the Church in destroying the enemies of it Saul a notorious hypocrite and self-lover yet adorned with abundance of heroicall martiall politique and morall vertues wisedome awe and authority courage and resolution equity and justice love to his followers till his spirituall treachery of heart quasht them Esau himself had his restraint of malice and so had Haman till their fitter opportunity And in a word as there are few so good but they have their tincture of some evill so neither are there any so bad but they have some morall reliques left in them of vertue and praise And this causeth them through a base heart balking God in his way of Christ to rest themselves satisfied in that sufficiency which they finde in these things as thinking they neede seeke no further for any superiour happinesse because they finde this to give them so abundant content both from within and from without feeling these feathers and colours of their owne both to heat and to adorne them And the truth is this selfe of morality and nature is so much the more dangerous by how much in shew it seemes so glorious for how vast a gulfe seemes to be betweene the former vicious forlorne caitiffe and this painted moralist Alas nothing is more apt to puffe up a naturall man then the abused privity to a former estate of excellency such and such they were bred and although they have lost all yet their breed and the reliques of their old ruines are enough to make them some body As we see it in them who having bin well bred Simil. and fallen to decay though they have nothing to take too yet even in the necessity of forced begging beg with indignation at the basenesse of it and will say good Sir shew some respect to a poore Gentleman putting on their hat instantly and scorning to bee as they are even so is it here That which should most abase us doth most pride us our very ruines seeme rarities unto us and nourish a sufficiency of our owne in us so that wee canâ—ot resigne it up and throw it at the feete of Christ to purchase a better But then much more prone are we to be puft up if we thinke that wee have raised our fortunes to a pretty estate the second time by our owne improvements and industry None are prouder then such as being privy to their ruined estate of creation yet make themselves beleeve that by their owne worth they have raised themselves from it to a very faire competency of estate in morall and civil vertues others remaining still in their beggery of viciousnesse and base evills Use of the point Briefly then of this second sort this I adde Oh how lamentable is it that a man borne to bee a sonne of God and beautified with his owne image should become so disguised as having lost grace in the substance to rest in a meere shadow thereof destitute of a principle of divine life and goodnesse and to stay all such from their conceit of selfe-sufficiency herein A civill estate dangerous let me tell them first their vertue is copper coine and wants of the nature of gold as much as kennel water of the purenesse of spring water therefore their sufficiency is but a dreame a fruit of their ignorance and owlelight of discerning nay it is but a madnesse as he must be a foole who really can satisfie himselfe in counters as if they were peeces Secondly there is no safety herein for the error of their conceit may more harden them against Christ then the prophanesse of the wickedst if God vouchsafe them both equall light Thirdly if God leave them in this hardnesse of heart they may prove as desperate opposites and pursuers of all grace of Christ and Christians as the most horrible open swine yea worse as we see in Saul and Iulian. Therefore to conclude let all such know that till the Lord have lighted a torch by his word of a greater discovery of themselves then yet they have seene they are farre off from the embracing of Christ they are wedged already into so deepe a sufficiency of their owne that Christs is unsavory And therefore although I will not advise them to renounce the vertues themselves nor judge them as vile as open offenders yet I wish them to come under a better banner and cast their owne worth upon the dung-hill They are gone up to heaven by a ladder of their owne framing and setting But they must come downe each step thereof with more shame and confusion ere they can set one step towards Christs ladder in which respect I see not but he who stands upon the ground still and never went higher is somewhat nearer the bottome of Christs ladder then they And so much also of this second kinde of grosse selfe viz. selfe-naturall morality I come to the third The third carnality or flâ—shly savor Rom. 8.6 And that is carnality or fleshly savor of the which I spake somewhat in the tenth verse shall say more in verse twelve Here therefore I will onely touch the point and shew wherein this grosse selfe opposeth Christ
in our estate and wealth fatting welfare diet attendance fulnesse of outward accommodations victory over our opposites freedome from crosses elbowroome in the world acceptation with our betters favor with such as can helpe us in our straits unlooked for gaines and overplus of commodities meete for the use of this life The creature is very apt to tickle and satisfie the corrupt heart of man not onely for need but for delight These both all of them and any of them have a marveilous agreeing nature in them with the corrupt sensuall appetite of man and therefore easily incorporate with our spirit and tickle the flesh so that as a girdle full enough for the loines easily compasseth the body and keepes it close within the compasse thereof even so this sensuality and grose selfe of the creature easily begins the heart and compasses it with delight therein so that it must bee a marvelous strong convincement from an higher cause which must disswade unsettle and gaster the soul from such a sufficiency As musicke through the familiarity of it to the eare and sence doth so please it for the time that it is led from serious thoughts and objects of worth and is taken up and possessed wholly with it so the comfort warmth of the creature in every kind and the more the worse hath a marveilous attractivenesse inchantment and unsuspectednesse in it to satisfie the soul with it selfe and causeth it while its warmed in this nest to say with that Epicure I am as I would bee and I wish no better Alas what wonder The soules misery is not only in this that she hath lost her true Paradise but that shee is alway hankering and catching at every shadow and vanity in hope to lay hold upon the Paradise she hath lost she dreames that she had one and should have one but what an one she hath lost or what she should recover she knowes not she gropes as one smitten with blindnesse about the doore but cannot hit upon it the further she wanzes the further off she is from true content But to bee sure that true Sufficiency and Paradise of grace shee hath no appetite after it Nay any false vanity and most lying content in all the world is enough to cheat and to seduce the heart from fastning upon it Again we see that men can finde a secret satisfaction to themselves to bee as they are to the end they might rid themselves of any further care after a sufficiency of Christ although they have no earthly content in the world to still them nay perhaps when sicknesse poverty shame debt sorrow and all misery at once environs them hope of freedome kepes their carnall heart from bursting be it never so farre off and if any thing in the world even the very rags on a mans backe or a crust to feed the belly yea if it be but moone shine in the water which a man can catch at it is enough any thing rather then Christ nay any bable to avoide Christ will serve the turne What wonder then when a deluded heart can fasten upon any reall contentment to flesh be it never so farre from spiritualnesse as ease and welfare or the like if I say it greedily catch at that and satisfie it selfe with it seeking no further But if it have variety and choice of these to repose content in so farre may we be from wondring at men satisfying themselves herein that rather we may stand and wonder that ever the Lord should so powerfully breake in upon the soule as to gaster it from such a selfe sufficiency convince her of her nakednesse and pull her from her owne to seeke a sufficiency in Christ And there is reason for it For this like a viper Hath a peculiar deceit in it unsuspected stinges the soule to death by sweetnesse Perhaps the former sorts of grosse selfe admit some checks and stings of conscience through the corruption thereof But these being the good creatures of God and lawfull both for kind use and abundance yea for a competent delight in them if we could hit upon it rightly doe without any suspicion with a smoothnesse and facility carry the heart into the stream of their sufficiency and sâ—â—suality and so choak all longing or desire after Christ Perhaps every one is not so grosse as he who sold his birthright for pottage nor to say to the wedge of gold Thou art my God This all would confesse to be horrible and to deny the Almighty in plaine tearmes Iob 32. but when men can joyne these with the Almighty and yoke them as men do horses and oxen in drawing of the same plough to draw the affections of their soules equally to love and satisfie themselves in as what is more easie then to cosen the heart with this error Oh then how hard is it to cure such selfe in the creature or to shew it the basenesse of such a sufficiency Any thing serves a base heart which hath lost her savour Further illustration of this That which is spoken of Laodicea agrees to this selfe even literally Thou saiest I am rich and cloathed and needest nothing It s the secret voice though all will not speake out of worldly wealthy ones and of all others of the same ranke before named each feather being of the nature of this nest of selfe viz. I am sufficient of my selfe and neede nothing Rich and jolly worldlings ascribing that to their wealth and to the creature Rev. 3.18 which is the Creators due that is to put their confidence and trust therein 1 Tim. 6.18 and not the living God and to turne the glory of Christ which is uncorruptible into the image of a base creature Rom. 1. to make it her all in all her fullnesse her sufficiency and so seekes no further A carnall heart never stands to question what the difference is betweene the content of the creature and the comfort of Christ alas it hath lost that savour Gen. Josh ult and cannot see a far off therfore rests it selfe as Terah and his compâ—ny on the other side of the river and never comes over it with Abraham to the land of promise Behold in the creature shee will set up her rest And sutable to this is that of the wise man The rich mans riches is his strong hold Prov. 18.11 not only to hide himselfe in against all affronts but to fortifie himself against Christ and his grace No question of it the appetite of the carnall heart which wants the creature and the savor of the carnall heart which hath got it already though commonly it provokes a thirst after more are the two common barres of the most people to keep out Christs sufficiency and in my judgement the latter more then the former Eccles 7.12 For Silver answers all saith Solomon that is a man of silver may have anything because its the price of all things how hard then is
is a better comming in place when all is done say of thy selfe as Luther of those devotions I count my selfe no nearer heaven by them then if I had plaied the Publican all this while nay in some regard further off The Divell else will cut thy veines in this warme water and cause thee to perish insensibly Consider that to have this selfe of thine may seeme somewhat But to cast all this off and be naked and nothing can onely prepare thee for that fulnesse and sufficiency of Christ which can onely save thee Which grace the Lord grant thee Thus for a more cleare handling of this argument I have digressed from the streame of my doctrine it is now high time to returne to it againe So much for this time Let us pray for a blessing c. THE FIFTH LECTVRE continued upon the eleventh Verse VERSE XI But Naaman was wroth and said Behold I thought thus in my selfe surely he will come forth and call upon the Lord his God and strike his hand upon the place and recover the leper VERSE 12. Are not Abana and Pharfar rivers of Damascus better c. HAving in the former Lecture beloved made way to settle this maine Doctrine of close Selfe upon her bottome Returne to the maine scope of the point of mixt selfe by severing from it some kindes of self more grosse and palpable I must now taking it for granted that you remember what I have said of it already proceed to the handling of the point And lest any should thinke there is no finer spunne selfe then that I have spoken of First I will mention some branches of this roote mixing themselves with the soule in her strife after faith and as the Ivy about the bow twining about the best endeavours of the poore soule to hold it off from the promise This being done I will prove the doctrine by Scripture and reasons Thirdly I will lay downe an answer to a question for the opening of the dangerous nature of this enemy And lastly come to some use of the doctrine First of the first First then that you may perceive brethren what manner of thing this mixt selfe is Mixt selfe wherein it discovers it selfe I will name some of the chiefe instances wherein this disease discovers her selfe The which I mention without any curious order and leave them to the godly wise to consider of every one to single out his owne annoyance The first is selfe error 1. Error imagining that the Lord in his promise and offer of Christ doth not so offer him as therewithall conveying power and efficacy of perswading and inabling the soule to accept and beleeve it of it owne power thereby creating in the soule the fruit of lips Esay 57. Jam. 1.16 but rather upon some condition of our owne strength mixed with the Lords goodnesse to concur of our selves with the promise Secondly selfe-conceit 2. Self-conceit such as Naamans here was fancying a way of our owne speedier and quicker then we have warrant for to wit that if once the soule bee under a condition and prepared for Christ by sorrow desire and diligence the worke of beleeving is as present as the grinding of the corne when the upper milstone runnes upon the nether whereas faith is the stampe of the spirit which bloweth when it listeth 3. Self-preparins at his pleasure Thirdly selfe-preparations that is a taking up of a rest in the soule that if she can but attaine to these she need goe no further for these can be wrought in no other then in such as shall be saved whereas first the question is whether they be truly wrought or from selfe-love and although they proceed from the promise yet happinesse consists not in them but in the omnipotent power of God carrying the soule by them into the streame of the satisfaction of Christ the onely blood whereof is sufficient to save it by faith 4. Selfe-bondage Fourthly selfe-bondage which is when the soule is so extreamly oppressed with the reliques or returnes of slavish feare through corruption and guilt too deeply apprehended that it is dazeled and held under from beholding the free and cleare truth of the promise to set her at liberty yea if melancholy and frowardnesse of will be added hereto mixed with the ill custome to conceive so deepe enmity in God against the sinfull creature that she will hold her owne peevishly against all the light of the word or counsell and perswasion to the contrary viz. that God the offended judge is the first mover in this frame of conversion and hath cut off his plea willingly and intended the way of reconciliation himselfe The fifth is selfe-love 5. Selfe-love when the soule so lookes at the promise as an object of immediate good to herselfe and for her owne ends and welfare not subordaining her owne salvation to the glory of God and the declaration of the depth of his wisdome 1 Thes 1. and the riches of his grace that he may be admired in them that beleeve 6. Sloth The Sixt is selfe-sloth when the soule hath a wambling and fulsome aime at the promise not indeed seriously and sadly digesting the ground of Gods so free offering the inestimable jewell of Christ to her for pardon and peace called in Scripture the strength of God Esay 27.5 I meane the full appeasing of his justice by the paiment of a price nor yet with how faithfull an heart full and free grace he offereth but loosely forgetting that all is yea and amen in Christ and looking at the promise as at a thing naked and unfurnished hath a strong consolation and refuge Heb. 7. Heb. 6. penult The Seventh is selfe-treachery and doubtfulnesse whereby the soule having the generall offer of God to all under the condition 7. Treachery yet because she is not named in the word therefore doubts that in speciall she is not intended in the offer and so growes to thinke that she may separate the things which God hath joyned whereas she should rest in this That the Lord debarres no soule from grace which debarres not herselfe Esay 55.1 saying Ho every one that thirsteth come c. and the particular is included in the generall and if every poore soule should thus goe betweene barke and tree and cavill who should ever come to beleeve Eightly 8. Infidelity selfe-infidelity which is a deadly dart of Satan piercing the heart even when the fruit is comming to the birth tempting thus why art thou so bent to cleave to the word How knowest thou whether it be Gods word or no If it be how canst thou prove it If not whereupon dost thou build thy great confidence And this dart often so prevailes that all the former witnesse of the spirit touching the truth of God by many evidences seemes to be lost Ninthly selfe-cavilling 9. Cavilling when the heart is set upon excepting against the promise either from her
begunne in the soule yet seeing many have gone farre and perished faith is of few and the free worke of the spirit which bloweth onely upon some also feeling fearfull untowardnesse in her selfe darkenesse dulnesse deadnesse and unworthinesse doubting also of her election or sanctification that either she shall never renounce her lusts or persevere upon these or the like feares she concludes she belongs not to God nor shall beleeve Now this feare a man would thinke were rather selfdeniall then selfe but in very deed it is often discovered to be a more tenacious enemy then the former for why it trencheth horribly upon the simplcity of the offer the power and truth of the promiser as if it would set grace at a non-plus and as if the Lord were a tyrant a lyer so doth it claspe to it selfe will not be beaten out of her den 3. Withdrawing selfe nor resigne up her selfe to God The third and last degree is yet most dangerous of all I meane withdrawing selfe and may be conceived to be the last corner of the strong fort of selfe in her opposing of Christ and to prevaile with many whom the former two could not foile Marke it well And it is that wofull and desperate flinging out of the soule and incompliablenesse of the spirit with the onely and sound way of God to save the soule which is faith comforting pacifving converting and changing the heart to God Which way when the closenesse solemnesse nakednesse and necessity of it is presented to the soule it findes her marvellously wrapped and wound in with abundance of such secret scurse of her owne that first shee begins to be offended at the purity spiritualnesse and holinesse of it as farre exceeding her carnall comprehension or content as the heavens exceed the earth shee sees not how it is possible for two such extremities to bee reconciled And secondly she feeles such a Law within herselfe such an horrible repugnancie of heart against this way such an old custome of formality in Religion ease sloath restinesse and luskishnesse of spirit as Rahel sitting upon her Idols and loath to stirre that this way workes her to extreame unwillingnesse to consent and obey shee wishes from her heart that the command of faith were of a shorter size and a narrower extent she fore-casts such an utter misery in selling her selfe and all for the gaining of a promise as the young man did Heb. 10. ult when he was bidden to sell all and therefore concludes The price is too great the commodity as good as it is is too deare how shall it stand with selfe What will old froth and vanity liberty and loosenesse of heart of thoughts and affections say to this geare she must for ought shee sees consult with them and have their good wills ere ever she can consent here 's the pudder Selfe will not yeeld her old bent frame and streame is carnall or at least but mixtly and halfe religious and therefore to cast that out would make her forlorne and a begger an unsubsisting creature without a bottome On the other side God will not yeeld his bent and end is to subdue the soule to himselfe to bring her within his owne narrow compasse to be all in all to her as selfe was before the meere and naked bottome of her joy welfare he hath given his Sonne to purchase the soul thus to himselfe He hath denied his glory and himselfe that hee might thereby win the soule to magnifie him in his love and glory in his grace and therefore he will not lose his ends Except then the controversie bee determined and the soule drawne up and overcome to resigne up and raze this fort of Selfe and trust God with her owne soule for mercy and for powerfull subduing of her selfe This last degree will make her rather to chuse the forfeit of heaven then of her owne will and content And this may serve for the three degrees of mixt or secret Selfe Now I come to the second part of the answer touching the foot-steps and passages of this enemy and so to end the question Concerning which I say Secondly by her passages Three 1. Ground of Selfe is flesh that the passages of selfe may bee conceived in these three particulars First in the ground of it secondly in the carriage of it thirdly in the scope and issue of it For the ground or principle of it it is Flesh that which is not from Grace is no better then flesh seeme it what it will and that may appeare both in Legall selfe and Evangelicall For Legall selfe I may say that which the Holy Ghost Esay 58. Esay 58. speakes of Hypocrites that even in their fasting which was selfe-afflicting Levit. 23. Levit. 23. yet they had pleasure they kept their false measure within and nourished such a carnall heart as caused their humiliation to be defiled so is it here If we knew who were elect and who not as we cannot we might as well discern them by a defect of Legall as well as Evangelicall preparations for Christ is Alpha and Omega Revel 1. the beginning and end of the salvation of his owne So that as common a worke as the Law is accounted sure it is that selfe hath her bredth in that narrow and admits not such abasement as the Law worketh in the elect but rather she hath pleasure and beares off the dint by some extenuation of her sin or other even then when she should receive the sacrificing knife to cut the throat Both in respect of the Law and the Gospel 1. The Law that is to slay the pride and jollity of nature she lickes her selfe whole if she can as fast as the Law wounds But if it so fall out that the Lord is purposed to breake in upon such a soule with his terrours and to cast her downe to the ground so that shee is under water and terrified to purpose yet herein selfe appeares that either she windes herselfe out as soone as the extremity is over by indirect meanes or else the strait shee is in is no meanes to drive her out of her selfe to another but rather to fret and rebell thinking she hath wrong or she growes thereby to thinke herselfe to be in a better case because she is stopped in her old course or if the utmost extremitie comes she chuseth rather to rid her selfe from it by violence and destroying of her selfe rather then to see God in the worke But not hereby to behold the clear way of God to bring the soule to a condition of grace when she is at an utter losse and plunge in her selfe For then this worke should leave her better then it found her that is cause her upon a ground of the Word to see herselfe within Gods net and so to grow to conceive some possibility and hope which is too lively a worke for selfe to reach unto 2. Gospell and that both in the eye-sight
Secondly in respect of the Gospel selfe is but flesh The Gospel presents Christ to the beleeving soule dearly and favorly but selfe failes in both her eye-sight and heart-sight of him I mean both in understanding and will For the first selfe cannot see so much of Christ as God offers in his Gospel shee beholds onely such an excellencie of Christ offered therein as is severed from the gift to receive him with which upon poynt is as good as nothing for it is but a shread of Christ which an hypocrite may have Rom. 2. Ephes 4.21 Rom. 2.5.6 But a poore soule sees Christ even as the truth is in Jesus and as hee is offered to the soule that is not as a bare price of pardon and peace but as a thing enabling the soule to buy and receive him into her own bosome 1 Cor. 1.30 Of him saith Paul are we who is made unto us of God c. Marke not as onely as cloath which will make a garment but as a garment fitted for us and ready made for that he serves for both covering and defence As the twy-light differs from the brightnesse of the morning Sunne upon the top of an hill whence a man may see all the wide sky so doth a beleeving soule and selfe differ in beholding Christ That which is said in another sense Matth. 24. Matth. 24. That the Sonne of mans day shall bee as the light which shineth from East to West that may bee said of Christ offered to the eye or minde of a beleever that the whole light for kinde of the Sonne of righteousnesse Matth. 13.11 is discovered to him As our Saviour tells his Disciples To you I speake clearly to others in Parables that seeing they might not understand because they will not selfe putting in a condition of her owne which God puts not For the Lord so offers Christ that the vertue of the offer becomes to a broken soule both price and Chapman yea breeds that in the soule which it offers even faith to embrace it But selfe puts in a condition If I can accept it Shee would in a sort bee cloathed and fed upon her own purse Now this condition God puts into the offer I will create the fruit of the lippes Esay 57. Jer. 31.31 I will take out the heart of stone I will write my Lawes in their heart and cause them to beleeve c. Selfe heares these things as the noise of many waters I see saith shee an excellent thing offered to such a one as can receive it and then shee goes about to perform the condition her self hoping thereby to compasse Christ But this labour might be spared if she beheld the offer aright as able both to prepare the soule with brokennesse and emptinesse and also to beget faith in it The honest soule puts faith into Christ crucified and the offer saying thus If the Lord will save mee I will let him alone also to worke faith in me by the Merit and worth of the thing offered for why God doth not offer me a dead Christ but a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. not as a bare object of excellencie serving to enable me to concurre with him of my selfe and to be a partner with him in the poynt of application but as a purchase of satisfaction to justice 1 Cor. 1.30 and also of faith for mee to embrace it with that he who boasteth might boast in the Lord. Oh! if selfe could know the gift of God and who it is who offereth one that can doe that for us which he did for that woman Joh. 4. and that blinde man Joh. 9. while he talked with them what a light would it afford to the soule The ignorance of this causes the soule to bee in as deep a stagger after Christ is revealed as it was before for why Selfe is ready to cavill Lo God offers Christ as one should offer an hundred pound to one for the running of a mile whose legges are cut off But a needing soule set out of and beyond her selfe spins out all her hope and helpe from the promise trusts not to her own steppes which she makes to Christ but to the steps which Christ makes toward her both as her price and Advocate to apply it 1 Joh. 7.8 Joh. 8.22 the Way the Truth and the Life Secondly Selfe failes also in the Heart-sight of Christ And the heart sight of Christ For although she hath some glimpse of affections toward the things of the Gospel yet she savours them onely as things good to her selfe so long at least as that savour lasteth and promise to her some welfare A carnall heart must be pleased and the Lord Jesus must serve to that purpose But a poore needing soule so sees Christ offered as by that sight all other objects of sense are eclipsed yea dispossessed receiving thereby such a bottome of spirituall rest and content into the soule as needs no other false bottome to eike it out withall Selfe so apprehends Christ as an object of good making up some formerly enjoyed good not able to satisfie of it selfe and so both holds her owne still as essentiall and addes another to it as onely a bettering of another not a casting out of another that Christ might be all in all that he I say might be in stead of Selfe A pearle to one that findes it is both house and ground sheep cattell pullen and all makes all base to come under the worth thereof So doth Christ bear downe Selfe and becomes to the soul that which all wealth ease sports company pleasure and content could bee Selfe soders matters of all sorts together and makes an Image of all mettals mixed with clay joines a horses crest and shoulders to the head of a man Why is this because Christ is not revealed to the heart as her Adaequate and full object shee heares of him as the Jewes dream'd of release an halfe object of happinesse not as an excelling good in comparison of which all former are dung and drosse Satan so blindes the eyes of Selfe 2 Cor. 4.4 that this glorious sight never comes at the heart to possesse and fulfill it I say Selfe shuffles and huddles all together and reacheth at the Lord Jesus with that carnall savour wherewith shee reacheth at profits and pleasures as a fulsome fellow who complements with all sorts alike so he be satisfied with any thing he is glad As for discerning of things that differ and ascribing the maine esteeme of heart to that which best deserves it out of judgement and savour what is best hee is farre from it onely the honest heart sees a peculiarity of savour gaine and sweetnesse in Christ and as once the Oracle bid them that asked who should have the Kingdome Give it the best so shee gives up her selfe with all her content and delight even her Kingdome and prerogative to the best the true and undoubted Lord even Christ shee separates the
deny her selfe in some kinde and yet all to uphold and strengthen her selfe in another and more beloved way to her selfe wherein selfe resembles the novices of subtill Jesuits who for the obtaining of an higher selfe which is salvation and Canonizing for Saints dare attempt the murder of Princes themselves with the hazard of life and all How will selfe serve her selfe into the most close and powerfull ordinances of extraordinary nature as fasting and prayer denying the ease of many common and formall professors 1. Selfe denies her selfe in lesser objects to purchase her selfe in greater and all with a rotten and unsound heart that they may imbarke themselves though not into oppression and rapine as those grosse hypocrites in Esay yet in the strength perswasion of their zeale and soundnesse of heart and hatred of sin and love of the welfare of Gods Church whereas no sooner these duties are over but they meet with the same poisons of heart abiding and reigning in them with woefull impurity and defilement of conscience I will not here mention the base counterfeit selfe-abstinences of Popish hypocrites in their masked selfe-denialls of marriage mony converse and trading in the world soft apparell lodging and the like liberties that they might hereby winne heaven with greater selfe-love and that they might nouzle up themselves the more unsuspectedly in their secret uncleannesse hoording up of treasure and fulfilling the lust of their flesh neither will I insist in the selfe-deniall of time-servers who sometimes for the strengthening themselves in promiscuous lust deny the benefit of marriage to themselves or to climbe up to preferment abstaine from common drunkennesse and open uncleannesse or with Absalon conceale their horrible pride for a time if they finde it may commend them to the world that it may bee thought they are courteous faire and of loving and gentle demeanure all which when once they have gotten what they would they lay aside and returne to their natures But I rather instance in secret passages of this subtilty As when a man denies his proud heart her scope lest it should bring him to ill report and reproach or I would deny my selfe in my liberty for prayer and duties that I might stop the wound of my conscience or I would take paines in the office of a Magistrate or Minister or Townsman to see order kept Religion maintained poore relieved I would give much to good uses and the like but why to purchase to my selfe the repute of a zealous a pious a mercifull man Thus Ananias and Sapphira were content to deny a chiefe piece of their estate Acts 5. that they might enjoy a farre lesse part of it with great honour in the Church or a man will do all which belongs to an outward professor to the end he may retaine himselfe in that last evill of unbeliefe or unreformednesse of heart So of the rest Consider now what incredible subtilty this is to do much more then a man need to doe for the nourishing of some privy evill which it shall not boote him one pin to reserve and for ought he shall gaine by it he might practice it and all other openly and fare never the worse This for one instance Another may be this what subtilty and close cunning is this 2. A second instance To maske sinne under holinesse 1 Kings 21.9 to doe that under colour of Religion which might well enough bee conveied by the foulest meanes who abhorres it not that Iezabel should commence her cruell murther of an innocent under the pretext of a fast and by suborned instruments which might better have beseemed the most villanous cut-throat in a Country to have done And yet this is the subtilty of selfe to maske a proud vaineglorious heart an heart full of hollownesse worldlinesse and treachery with the cover of Gods choisest ordinances what is this but to hold God at the staves end of his own service and then to be deepest in duties when yet the heart aimeth at cloaking her selfe and her deepest licentiousnesse and falshood What is this but double iniquity What is this save to capitulate with God to be godly and proud still worldly and religious devout and vain-glorious and that under priviledge If such scurfe were onely coloured with base Popish varnish it were a lesse evill But to set such base wares forth upon Gods stall which were too base to be vended upon the basest stall in a market how odious is it and how wicked a thing is it for one that might as good cheap be an open malefactor to chuse religion as a stage to act it on Nay further what is it but to bee vile in meere villany and cool bloud when a man might be godly better cheap then he is wicked When a man chuses rather a perpetuall vexation of heart and a misery of condition never quiet alway forced to live by shifts and subtill devices rather then a setled peace and content Oh! that there should be such scurfe in the soule under hand that it should redeeme the loathnesse and difficulty of being once converted to God with the deere price of perpetuall self-slavery to no purpose What subtilty againe is it for a man to defile himselfe in the things he knoweth as S. Iude speakes of those false teachers 3. Instance To defile it selfe in that it knoweth To nourish such an incurable and insensible love of a beloved lust in the heart as he knowes to be so and yet dare live in the practice of it under a pretence as base and confessed Would not any laugh at the hypocrisie of Balaam Numb 22.19 who would needs goe with Balaacs servants under colour of doing no more then God would permit and yet even the bare going with them was against Gods command Was it like that hee would have denied his gaine to please God had not God over-ruled him by force from cursing his people This we all detest but the subtilty of selfe in our own way we discerne not and yet we are content our eyes should bee blind-folded that we might sin securely Who abhorres not that debauched Jew who being loath to misse the opportunity of a ship and yet afraid to breake his Sabbath was content to be such a foole as to hire one to thrust him into the ship by violence that so hee might bee blamelesse and yet selfe is as subtile and debauched and wee will not abhorre it Endlesse it were to speake of all What falshood of heart is this 4. Instance Pretence of preferring God yet seeking our selves to pretend that Gods glory is chiefe with us when yet the occasion being offered we chuse rather God should want his glory rather then we crossed of our wills That either he must be honoured our way or by our selves as the instruments or else wee care not whether hee bee honoured at all What is this but selfe-esteeme and pride Whereas wee know 2 Chron. 22.9.12 David blessed God that
surviving nature of it the surviving and outlasting nature of this Danger 2 enemy should strike sad thoughts into us Doubtlesse its the conceit of many in whole bosome it liveth that at one time or other they shall bee rid of it it shall not alway lodge in them but in the meane time that pleasingnesse of it within the bosome doth bewitch them so that they rest in wanzing hope of it without serious using of such meanes as might serve to cast it out of them and so their thoughts perish and selfe lives still in them and so will doe some Sermon fast or meanes they hope shall destroy it for they would bee rid of it but this enemy hath nine lives and will never die quite onely they might quell the poison and power of it if their hearts were serious but then the meanes to effect it require such attendance that they chuse rather to sit still with ease And although they doe take good paines yet they doe but make themselves beleeve they would be rid of it for indeed long custome hath stupified their hearts and made them senslesse of their ayle they have lost their old tendernesse and feeling of the mischiefe of it and therefore they carry it with them to Church to fasting to sacraments and to all good duties but they lose it in none of them all it returnes as it went and out-lives them all Alas no wonder how should a body of death be destroyed by shadowes except that body of life or rather that quickning Spirit be brought in to cast it out how should it give place What wonder if after all vowes Bare offers â—mpâ—ements or means cannot encounter a body of death and experience of the contrary still Selfe of uncharitablenesse privie revenge censuring unmercifulnesse selfe-ease selfe in the creature survives in the soule and out-lives all affections of complaint and dislike so long as the stronger man is not really sought unto to cast out this strong and to beare it downe by his promise and power with head and shoulders This would make the soule resolute and cordiall to say I am resolved indeed to be rid of it for I would not else have done that I have done to cast it out I would never really have admitted the Lord Jesus into me to doe it for he comes strong and will throw him out ere he have done He that doth but wish a bad and noysome Tenant were out of his house Luke 11.21 may hold him in and lose his rent all his life long but if he get a writ of ejectio firmae and bring the Sheriffe in person to throw him out by force and armes he may be beleeved that he would have him out Doe then in this case as the poore Shunamite in the case of her dead childe 2 King 4.30 comming and moaning to Elisha when he hastily sent Gehazi with his staffe to lay it upon the childes face that would not serve her turne she caught the Prophet by the feet saying As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee and lind not till she had brought him to the corps where he found the worke to be of more hardnesse then the laying on of a staffe by Gehazi himselfe by the omnipotency of God was onely able to doe it Danger 3 Thirdly adde this one more the closenesse and inwardnesse of this enemy of Selfe The closenesse inwardnesse of Selfe consider how secret and scarce discernable it is Take one or two instances for many in the use of spirituall communion of the Saints how difficult is it to discover the closenesse of this Selfe and how privily it scrues it selfe into such fellowship not for the true and spirituall ends thereof but for some by respects as the admiration of holy persons contentation to a selfe-loving heart seeking her credit or perhaps some knowledge or the like Oh! how hard is it to finde out this that the scope of the soule is meerly and simply to draw up as with the bucket of an hungry empty heart that grace understanding which is hidden in it Again so close and secret is selfe that it is a great difficulty to discerne selfe-joy selfe-content comming from the creature from entire and sound content flowing from Christ It is as hard as to separate confused sorts of corn mixed together Not but that the difference is great but earthly Selfe so scrues and mixes it selfe with religious that oft-times the soule markes not the difference so shee may fare well and please her selfe shee doth not so discern the principle whence it comes but either preferres the content of the creature or else mixes and confounds it with the best content till the creature creep in too farre the heart wax wanton and defiled yea so snarled that it must cost her the vomiting of her morsels ere she can recover a cleare appetite againe so closely and as it were betweeene the marrow and the bones doth this lurking enemy lodge within us So much for the danger Now from both these considerations be we admonished to conceive of to abandon and cast out this enemy I might call it as Paul calls death this last enemy of our peace Overcome this Pressing of the admonition 1 Cor. 15. and all other shall give place as we would obtaine that we run for so in Gods feare let us beware of this enemy Let us not bee as that foole in Salomon when all is sayd Though we bray him in a mortar yet will not this Selfe depart It is even as Saul was whom as Samuel found 1 Sam. 15. so hee was faint to leave with this wofull marke Honour me before the people so saith she Forgoe not thy selfe but if the doctrine be true shee will bee that last foe which will keep thee from conversion Then either renounce her or else say as that wofull wretch said of his harlot I will have her though I go to hell with her So it must be whether thou say so or not therefore renounce not thy Lord Jesus and his free grace to melt to soften to save and change thy heart for the sake of her with whom if thou wilt needs keep her in thy bosome thou canst not possibly have a soft a tender a repenting heart thou canst not thrive to heaven-ward she will lye in wait for thy pretious soule she will be as a canker to thy growth and prospering thou shalt toyle and moyle but she shall blast thy labours and as once one said of the cankers of a state what 's become of all our great Treaties Voyages Nothing so I may say here what 's become of all my strife how chance I grow no faster Surely nothing Thou art as thou wert if not much worse heaven is further off an hard heart neerer the doore Oh thou art smitten and yet knowst not who smote thee But now thou dost prevent the blow I may say of this Selfe as we say
as this that out of her owne doores an enemy should come forth even this Selfe lurking in the secret corners of the heart unmortified selfe in revenge in unmercifulnesse in deadnesse of spirit security and pride wantonnesse and unbeliefe which should dishonor that God and wound that Spirit of grace which hath so lovingly vouchsafed to rid us of our first guilt and feare of wrath that we might be his owne redeemed ones and not serve our selves Againe if Selfe be so dangerous as to hold off the unbeleeving soule from faith how dangerous is it in stopping the passages of our comfort dayly from the promise or in threatning us some mischiefe ere we finish our course with perseverance Could he that hath runne a long and faire race toward the prise and is well neere come to it endure one who should stand armed and by force stoppe him from getting the silver bell how should that enemy even this wicked Haman bee abhorred by us that should defeate us thus yea if it were but the making of that doore of heaven more narrow in the entrance then it need be 2 Pet. 1.11 whereas the Lord hath set it wide open to receive us after our poore pilgrimage is ended how odious should such an adversary be to us But I returne to other uses of the doctrine This may serve for both branches of Admonition A second use is Terror and that in two Branches First to all prophane Vse 2 ones and contemners of the Gospel and of the power of conversion Terror in two Branches 1. If Selfe in the most forward professors be so dangerous what shall become of the loose libertine and ungodly wretch Looke about ye and be affraid of your condition if such as are so fair for salvation and have passed through so many steps toward it who both in their judgements of others and perhaps in their owne deluded opinions are out of danger yet faile of their purposes because they strive unlawfully where shall such as you appeare Oh yee libertines joviall and merry companions who make Religion a vaile for your loosenesse and your civility an excuse for your ungodlinesse did yee never duly weigh this doctrine wofull creatures who care for no Religion but so farre as it wil stand with your lusts what face will ye behold the judge withall when ye shall see thousands of all sorts both Ministers who have preached Christ in the streets and cast out divells Matth. 7. Psal 12. others who have abode the heat of the day in Gods vineyard yet for lacke of self-deniall to lose all and yet you have hated the Gospel as a snake or a toade because it threatens your liberties yea sweare that yee will be curbed by none of these Preachers your tongues are your owne and no Lord shall controll you Tell me I pray you what confusion of thought shall cease upon you in that day you shall stand in the forlorne ranke of the battell and shall be as stubble for the fire irresistable you shall have the convincement within yee of a thousand witnesses and yeeld to damnation as speechlesse and hugge the divells and say to hell thou art my portion and to the damned you are our companions Job 21.33 As Iob speakes of the wicked who rejoyced in the earth the clouds of the valley are sweet to us so I say to these That which ye have sought shall bee your reward destruction shall be your end because you sought no better Oh! let me adde one word Oh that I could perswade you perhaps you will fight against me with mine owne doctrine Object and say if the painfull lose heaven they can but lose it who take no pains and why then besides should they lose so many lusts and worldly pleasures as they enjoy Answ I answer this is as if a Traitor should answer why should I be loyall when as yet I may be hanged for cutting a purse Doe neither what necessity is that ye should perish either way should one runne into a pest-house because he may die of a burning ague though he should shunne the plague Doe what lies in you both by physicke and diet to escape both But first you must take heed of wasting your conscience openly ere you can get a good and sound conscience void of selfe and self-love There must be a beginning and perhaps a prophane heart may sooner become an humbled one then an hollow heart which will see nothing amisse He that breaks off thy prophanesse may also grant thee sincerity in thine endeavour get but a seed of God into thee and thou shalt shunne both the right hand and the left hand evills I bid thee first to renounce the grosser lusts and then the smaller shall follow and Gods yoke may prove sweeter then both Be not dismaide because some have miscarried in a higher degree for better is he that crawles up the hill by little and little though a creeple then he who is neere the toppe and Branch 2 tumbling downeward of Terror Pharisees terrified Matth. 6. Rom. 12.1 So much for the first Branch Secondly this no lesse chokepeare for all pharisees and formall hypocrites whose Religion rests in their duties of these I have spoken in part before the lesse may serve here Except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of such ye shall certainly perish Selfe will destroy many that goe beyond you and their error must lye downe with them in the dust when all is done as Iob saith Chap. 21. It must be a reasonable a spirituall sacrifice of subjection to God which he will accept deale not with multiplication but subtraction keep your sheep sacrifices to your selves Psal 40. The Lords are the Sheepe of a thousand hills he needs none of such offerings say with the Prophet A body thou hast given me Lo heere I come but come without thy Selfe and confidence therein and cast out old enmity of corruption acknowledge and kisse the Sonne for his sea onely can sweep away thy dunghill and dregs away with thy morality and morall swasions bring them to the Spirit of Christ and he that shall drown them all in his sea Psal 2. ult and this shall breed thee more peâ—ce in one day then thine own course all the whole yeare which the longer thou tradest with it the sadder fruit it shall breed thee and at last the worst of all So much for Terror The third use of the point is instruction and that in sundry particulars Vse 3 First to teach us a true judgement of this enemy of our peace Instruction and Branch 1 what censure to passe of her Neither adultery murther oppression Selfe exceeds opâ—n evills in her delusion and â—â—fâ—ction nor any such lust can defeate us of our last hopes but this Self may and will Reckon up thine enemies perhaps thou wilt say thou hast many no man more then thou some that seeke thy shame some thy goods some thy life and
God beseech him to helpe thee with faithfulnesse in the search else thou wilt end as thou beganst not to spare thy self but desiring that the spears point which pierced Christ sides might let out the thoughts of thy heart in this kinde or rather that the sword of conviction may open the bowells of it and shed them to the ground doe not this work when thou art otherwise occupied and hast other businesse to doe thou shalt finde this work enough alone if not too much for thee and doe it by frequent meditation which is nothing else save making the truth of God thine owne and that which thou canst not finde thy selfe guilty of at one time or perhaps capable of or able to lay to heart to abhorre or to finde sweetnesse in the doing of goe to it another goe on where thou leftst praying God thou maiest not be new to beginne and thou shalt finde that at another time the second or the third thou shalt obtaine it Thou shalt not repent thee of thy labour in thus preventing and cutting short that enemy which would else have prevented and cut thee off from grace only resolve of this that till the Lord hath grounded thee in the truth of this doctrine a principle of practicall Catechisme it is impossible for thee to thrive in grace or use of meanes Further pressing of the triall Say therefore thus to the Lord Thou knowest the paines of thy servant in the use of meanes thou knowest how poorly I have thriven under them how little my faith my comfort my obedience is how ready I am to deceive my selfe in that I seeme to have to take up my rest therein that so I may not be molested any longer but soke my selfe in the dregges of my ease and will not to stirre one inch off my owne ground Now Lord if thou wilt be pleased to shew me whâ—t hath done me all this hurt I should infinitely blesse thee I am not so foolish I thanke thee as to trade for religion and yet crosse mine owne ends in wilfull holding any evill within my bosome which should deprive mee of my hopes I am willing to be informed and heare of the worst yea to unbottome my selfe of my old rotten mixtures and false grounds for the bettering of mine estate rather then to sleep in death and lie down with them in the dust Lord therefore now before my heart bee hardened in custome and security blesse mine examination to the true ends which it serves for Here I thought to have ended the use but there comes one objection to my minde Object Do all see this Selfe who are truly converted which must be answered For some will say You make a great discourse of this Self What think you Are there not many Christians truly converted to God who never discerned this disease as you have described it and yet are unfeigned and true converts and beleevers Answ 1 I answer you 2. or 3. wayes First hoping that their Quaere proceeds not from self-cavilling The grace of election working a greater measure of humiliation and tendernesse in some poore soules who want this knowledge supplies this want sweetly but from simplicity thus Many poor soules have through mercy obtained from the Lord a great measure of brokennesse of heart humblenesse of spirit more then the common sort of Professors either have or seek and by this means their helpes in both publique and private being few and their discouragements many the Lord beholding them in the grace of his election supplies all wants by his owne Spirit keepes them hungry abases them in the sense of their many infirmities puts in a spirit of perpetuall jealousie over themselves and works them to a marveilous plainnesse of heart to loath all falshood as they can discerne it and so perfects the work of faith in them secretly farre otherwise then in such poore creatures might bee expected of these I say that although perhaps they heare not so much discourse of the name and dangerous markes of Selfe yet they feele the realnesse of it within themselves and are better acquainted with it then many who heare more of it And these persons if it should please the Lord to bring that home in doctrine use and admonition unto them which I have spoken would be formost in acknowledging and blessing God for such truth and make better use of it then the most doe Answ 2 Secondly I answer Satan and corruption in these last daies doe conspire to withold many subtill wise and carnall worldlings from embracing the truth then ever and as all Arts so this art of Selfe serving into the truths of God by the counterfeiting and deceiving of men is grown rife and perfect Satan more prevailes with this subtill world then ever Ephes 4.14 therefore needs the more exact and carefull countermining Thirdly the Spirit of God under constant meanes workes leasurely and therefore corruption is not cast out all at once but by long discipline and discovery of it by the word and in the multitude of helpes such as Answ 3 God be thanked have beene enjoyed in sundry places much rankenesse hath growne as a canker in a faire apple in the spirits of many Professors as pride selfe-conceit and prejudice which the Lord hath justly punished as I noted in the reasons with a spirit of fulsomenesse and furfet hardnesse of heart and difficulty of perswasion so that in these daies that old tendernesse and selfe-deniall which possessed the spirits of most Christians is rare to finde Much need therefore of urging this doctrine in these our daies Much more need therefore there is of this doctrine to be urged in these dayes that such as are the Lords and yet held under this snare may be pulled out and saved and those who are not may be left therein because they would not receive the truth in the naked love of it Lastly to end this use this I adde That although the Lord should Answ 4 have called home many without any former knowledge of Selfe in any great measure yet I doubt not but when they do come to a better view of it they will both mend their former bottomes see cause to trust God and glorifie his grace in Christ more then ever before and also looke to themselves in the course of their sanctification the more watchfully lest this enemy should hurt them more in that then it did in the matter of their first conversion However I see no cause why the more cleare discovery of the will and way of God should seeme superfluous because God had his number when the light shined not so cleerly And so much for answer to this question We may discover it by these marks First by the true humbling of the soule A proud heart will have her will to die for it Because pride hath high thoughts and must be satisfied as Rabel with children or else shee dies And her daughters having lost their children by
Herods sword would not be satisfied because they were not See an example in those fugitives Ierem. 43. They would go into Egypt or else all is marred But the humble lowly heart is glad to stoop to any conditions The former is a dogged stout invincible heart The other is a broken and yeelding one it will indure any tearmes of selfe-deniall to abase it selfe Will God have him poore in meane account suffer losse of goods liberties for him He is content laies hand upon his mouth not a word my soule God will have it thus Will God have Paul preach He stoops to it Will he have him not preach in Bythinia but in Macedonia He descants not Will he have him goe from preaching to prison to banishment to the sword He is content If Michel mocke David he will yet be more wise If Shemeâ— will curse him hee will not revenge If he must lose his Kingdome let the Lord doe with him as he will The second Triall Judge thy selfe not in coole bloud but when thou art put to it Then Self will most recoile and selfe-deniall will most appeare Then is a souldier tried for courage when his enemy is upon him as Sampson When temptation is absent a foole is wise a froward one is patient an unchaste one is chaste But trie him and hee will act himselfe and shew his mettall In a good and peaceable time it is little to be good but to be so where Satans throne is is somewhat in the midst of an adulterous generation to shine is some signe of selfe-deniall Thirdly trie thy selfe-deniall by thy forsaking of gainefull sinnes Saul will kill the refuse of Amalek but the King and the fat cattell and the best of jewells he will save David will not kill Saul to hasten a Kingdome When two plead at the soules barre gaine and conscience only then is thy self-deniall searched Then looke to thy tacklings When Selfe is not importunate one Selfe may crosse another But if in importunity the soule be rough and resist it is a signe of denying her selfe Observe narrowly on whose side thou givest sentence when Christ and Lust pleade together as the two harlots If the sword of the word decide all is well If Abraham will renounce himselfe in his dear affection to Isaac God may trust him for ever Fourthly Try thy selfe in point of free willingnesse to search out the expresse will of God in a case of doubt without shuffling and crooking the rule of God to thine owne bent Thus did Balaam cosen himselfe with his consulting with God and speaking against an house full of gold but taking an handfull and going with the messengers hee had light at a key hole to tell him he must not go yet he quasht it Iohanan his men prayed Ieremy to consult with God but still hoping they should have a grant but being told he refused There is no halting before the Creeple The Lord knowes the meaning of the Spirit There is a light in the minde but the inspiring the straitning of it is from God Good wares will abide the light Bad will not And truth seekes no corners But Selfe doth and will say I would not put my mony to use but that it is against a Common-wealth to keepe it I would bee strict in a Sabbath but that it is too Jewish such figleaves our nakednesse will sow together So much for this Againe let this doctrine of Selfe teach us wisely to trie our sanctification and the truth of it as well as our justification and the effectualnesse thereof Selfe remaines in the best to defile their holiest endeavours in part But in hypocrites it defiles both persons and actions wholly So that it should make us wary how farre we ascribe to our sanctification except wee can prove our principle to be sound Selfe will deceive us with false colours of holinesse if we be not wary for there bee many things which carry a strong shew of it and yet come from a false ground All is not gold that glisters distinguish therefore our sanctification from all false principles which doe make semblance of it to deceive others and especially our selves An easie thing it is as I once read in a godly mans writings for an erroneous heart to goe forth in the strength of false principles of Selfe assisted with education Selfe in naturall parts Selfe in lusts Selfe in the power of Ordinances or Evangelicall light Selfe customes with many such like as these Selfe feare and bondage examples To give a little taste of a few of these that by the paw wee may judge of the Lion and perceive how farre sanctification lies above Selfe First take naturall Selfe to taske both in her affections abilities and conscience Naturall affections may deceive thus Abraham would needs have Ismael live in Gods sight out of a naturall affection Isaac would have Esau enjoy the blessing against the promise A woman hath a sicke child which shee earnestly desires to live and goes to God for it though without faith being a naturall woman Christ is not the strength of the prayer but nature See Hos 7.14 Affections are good as we see in Hanna if under faith But this error is thus discovered when the object is spirituall and the motive spirituall the affection is sound but when the soule is not carried beyond a naturall object as when a woman having her child recovered prayes no more it is a signe of meere nature See Gen. 20.24 in the Shechemites Againe when naturall affections onely carry the soule then meere softnesse of nature acts a man but not tendernesse of heart softnesse of nature will yeeld both wayes it will pitty an offender being punisht as well as an innocent it will be curteous to all sorts alike without respect of grace or desert why Because it is onely generall nature proceeding alway one way Softnesse will yeeld in the Church to counsell and out of the Church to ill company But Iosias his tendernesse yeelded but one way that is to the Law of God but was opposite to Idolls and destroyed them Mourning women hired at funeralls or stageplayers weepe for good and bad Ieremy weepes for Iosia the breath of their nostrills Lam. 3. and for the Church Ierem. 9.1 So much for this The like I say of naturall abilities They oft come in the roome of Christ and Grace The lackey rides and the Prince goes on foote Naturall Abilities are wit expressions memory judiciousnesse and the like in prayer conference repetitions of Sermons c. But the error is discerned thus Abilities doe not humble or change the soule as true sanctification doth but puffes up the heart rather Grace with giftes abases the soule See for this Acts 3.12 Revel 9.10.21 Faith the nearer it comes to God the humbler it makes a man it is an emptying grace of Selfe Againe parts will not keepe a man from sinne as grace will Abilities will not reach to suffer for God though they seeme to
so the people let them bee exhorted also to exalt free grace and meere Christ in the promise not muttering that they find not that fruit of their selfe-deniall that they expect but counting it their chiefe work to wait at the posts of grace not as foolish pilgrimes doe at the gate of the Popes entrance knocking with a golden hammer till he bring them his Jubilee blessing but with patience attending the promise till the Lord shall stirre the dead poole of their hearts and quicken them with hope confessing that it is mercy they may live and breathe in Gods aire much more by the aire of a promise although not yet so established in their hearts as they could desire yet sufficient to keep them from grudging to make them lay their hand upon their mouth and to bee dumb Malac. 3. till the Lord bring healing in his wings and put an end to their waiting But as for esteeming themselves for their common gifts of knowledge or zeale to be ever the neerer to God for which thousands are in hell abhorring it and chusing to be the poorest doore-keeper in Gods house then the highest Pharisees in the Church who need no righteousnesse of another because they boast of their owne Therfore in all matters of God deny thy self cleave to God God is the first cause and therefore the true end of our being actions service All Rivers runne into the Sea For us to make our selves our owne ends were to make our selves God independent and to make God an Idoll To deny our selves is to distinguish our selves from the ungodly who make themselves and the creature their happinesse Wee looke to better our selves by our selfe-love but indeed we destroy our selves Selfe is our disease selfe-deniall is our cure Whether is it better for us to yeeld to but we infinitely better our selves by denying our selves even an hundred fold as Christ tells us Object But who ever hated his owne flesh Doth not God himselfe perswade us by selfe-loving arguments As by profit pleasure peace I answer yes Selfe is a plant of Gods planting in our nature But it is one thing to destroy an horses good mettall another to rectifie and subdue it so it is one thing to destroy Selfe and affections with Stoicks another to regulate and direct them Love thy selfe and spare not so the Lord by his word may order thee in it and take off thine exorbitant Selfe as in the love of thy wife seeking of learning wealth honour favour c. For the better perswading of thee hereto take some motives and some meanes First for motives Till Selfe be denied thou dost in vaine enterprise to be religious thou opposest a desire of thine owne against an whole body of death for Selfe is overspread in all the lims and faculties of thy body and soule as the forme is over the matter and the Call over the inwards Thou wilt be tried with selfe resistance except the principle be first removed Flesh will so dog thee with her askings that thou wilt be weary with refusings Till the soule be thus prepared there can be nothing done The first husband must be dead ere thou canst marry a new at least in the rectified intention and preparation of thy soule The flesh of the Virgin had beene a clogge to the second person except first separated and purified by the holy Ghost Else Demas might have clave to Paul as well as Silas the ten spies to God as well as Caleb and Iosue But they were of two spirits No agreement betweene two crosse principles Secondly God will never stoope to thee his will is not to be bowed to thine nor ever will while the world standeth For his will is the rule thine the string out of tune What should order a crooked thing but a streight Neither can they both stand together take whether you will both you cannot have you cannot have your will and swinge in your contents of world lust and liberties and Christ too no man can serve two Masters nor drive two such trades at once as a Fullers and a Colliers the one sullyes as fast as the other whitens nay of the two there is more to be made of following Selfe alone without Christ then Selfe and Christ by the former a man may at least get himselfe a worldly happinesse though he lose heaven after But by the latter a man makes him wretched and distracted so that he can neither enjoy the one nor the other Skin for skin and all that a man hath he will give for his life The heart of a Christian is single in respect of his object onely God and his favour no mixtures with it Either deny nature in her inordinatenesse or else give God over for both cannot consent in one degree of eminency who cares for a wavering minded man either to make him our chapman or friend or husband For still hee seekes not us but himselfe Let no sweet morsell be kept in our palate to cause God to be out of rellish with us Better key-cold then lukewarme Thirdly it is equall that Christ and God be chiefe because they have bought us with a price to bee theirs Wee should doe him great wrong who hath bought a Captive if hee should doe his owne worke God hath not onely bought our service but our selves Except then wee never made such a bargaine with God wee must bee for him who hath so dearly bought us To be sure God will bee revenged of us as well for not making that bargaine as for not keeping it 2 Pet. 2. Some hypocrites are said to deny Christ who bought them A servant is his Masters mony Fourthly The soule feeles a heaven in selfe-deniall What inward content thinke we had Abraham when he had denied Isaacs life And Moses and Paul when they could preferre God and his Church before their salvation to suffer afflictions with Israel rather then to be a Prince in Pharaohs Court Contrariewise what an hell carrieth that man in his soule who for base ends denies God and conscience Let but a man deny one base lust of revenge wrath and what an heavenly heart doth he carry with him to prayer Fifthly Think what an emptinesse there is in thy self thine own aimes and bents of heart and in those creatures and objects which thou judgest so sweet Wells wanting water and cloulds without raine As one saith of the Pagan Gods why did men chuse so many save that each one was emptinesse When the eie of Selfe falls downe from one cleere Sunne it thinkes it sees three or foure but they are all but fancies The fullest creature is but a brittle glasse full of water give it but as a cracke and it is gone If we were convinced hereof who would seeke vanity Who would deceive himselfe in eating ashes Esay 44. and hold a lie in his right hand It is meere inconsideratenesse and want of weighing things as hee saith there of the Idolater Sixtly Either be armed strongly
speake one word unto them to praise the one and disgrace the other but presently their spirits rise with indignation and conceive so much the more content in the new by how much they hear the old commended Oh! they will make histories of their beloved which their heart is set upon there is elbow-roome and liberty no enemy to hurt no feare of prisons sutes pursutes at Law wrongs or discouragements no difficulties to conflict withall in comparison of the good things which they looke for The strength of the object carries them captives pulles downe all objections and subdues them under the authority of their owne desires and the excellent things there to be had As for Sea-faring by the eight or nine weeks together in danger ill diet attendance lodging and rest want of wife children old kindred and acquaintance pleasures pastimes tush all these shall make for their good and make their new English shore the more welcome to them they hope God will weane them hereby from all the superfluous liberties sensualities and carnall affections and as for the defects of the soile or of mony or other contents they will waite seeing that nothing can bee perfect at once and when they are come thither they will not returne to the Old England which they forsoke upon any tearmes which can be offered them Oh! brethren let me speake to you without offence shall a poore conjecturall fading and earthly object so possesse the soules of men that it sets them in an extasie and shall not the promise of God wash and be cleane be reconciled to God prevaile much more to ravish us and set us beyond all Selfe and selfe-love Yes surely when Christ shall thrust Selfe out of place and become Selfe and all within us and doe that and infinitely more then that for us really which Selfe promiseth us deceitfully But here a question may be asked Object What are the workes of the Spirit of grace And what meanes are there to compasse them I answer Answ 1 These that follow which I mention shortly and so finish this first generall Exhortation And least any should aske me what I meane by the Spirit of grace I answer the same which Zack Chap. 10.12 meanes to wit the Spirit and effectuall power of the Lord Jesus his satisfaction and intercession whereby the Ministery of the Gospel is inabled to perswade the hearts of the elect to beleeve and imbrace the promise of forgivenesse and life What this Spirit of Grace is This Spirit is contrary to that spirit of Selfe which resisteth grace the one from heaven pure savory and divine the other from earth carnall sensuall and divellish The first marke of the Spirit of grace is that it is against Self and that in sundry respects Markes of it 2. First Grace strives to inlarge if self to the uttermost of her graciousnesse Selfe strives to strengthen her selfe by the plentiousnesse of Grace waxes wanton through Grace so content to enlarge Grace that therewith shee will enhaunse her selfe and will get up by the stirrop of Grace into the seate of Christ aâ—d make her selfe checkmate with him as an ill Steward or Bayliffe to a great Lord will seeme to doe him great service and looke to his grounds and cattell but so as himselfe may have a stocke of cattell going upon the same grounds so that he seeks his owne and his Masters advantage both under one he cannot beteame to promote his Masters with the losse of his owne But the true sight of Grace throwes Selfe out of her owne possession and ends The fulnesse of Grace empties the soule to the bottome Aske thy selfe then hath the view of this Grace and of the truth as it is in Jesus emptied thee of all thy gifts duties and religious performances Then it is a true Spirit and destroies Selfe There is no true godly Spirit but it is the more humble lowly and vile in its owne eies by Grace Selfe gathers false courage to her selfe by the Grace which is offered growes conceited confident and full of her selfe she thinks she cannot want enough of it whereas all runnes over and leaves her barren The spirit of Grace so shewes the fulnesse of Grace that it exhaustes her owne fulnesse wholly as those sterven Egyptians beholding Iosephs store of corne were more abased for their beggery and the Queene of Sheba beholding the depth of Salmons wisedome became a foole all her owne spirit of questioning and cavilling sunke downe If thy spirit crouch and creepe to Grace and be quite battered in her selfe it is a good signe As the Spirit of grace arises from glory to glory so selfe falls from shame to shame Jer. 14.8 to set up Grace what shall I say to thee Oh thou Saviour of all flesh surely nothing be confounded and say who is a God like to our God! It is nothing but the spirit of presumption which prides and pearks up it selfe Mica ult but the Spirit of grace quailes the heart and causes it to fall low as Naaman after did even to snatch and catch at Grace as one sterven for want of it As Peter Luke 4. beholding Christs glory cried out depart from me a sinfull man There is a legall whining basenesse and unworthinesse aiming at this that she might be worthier But there is an holy sense of unworthinesse when the savor of Christs fulnesse drinks up the Spirit and leaves it empty As when a proud boy heares a good scholar talke his conceit of himselfe turnes to abasement Oh how his combe is cut what a fool and an idot he is in his own eies If the Grace ye seek doth humble ye and not puffe ye up it is as it should be I professe brethren it would make one tremble to thinke how little of this Spirit is stirring in the world I see but few poore ones among us by this plenty of the Gospel take heed the Lord let us not bloud of this pleurisie The truth is we doe but fat people by this pasture wee bring no leannesse into their soules As if Christ served for nothing save to make men their owne Saviours in part and give over his owne honour it would doe ones heart good to behold some few poore soules how humble their knowledge of Christ makes them they stand as an empty bucket by the well side but it would cut ones heart to see how many bold bog saucy ones there are instead of a few empty ones Oh! pull pull downe your peacocks feathers If Christ be a fountaine be you a channell dried up If he be a Magazine be you bare walls If he be so rich a dole come you to it as orphans bee fatherlesse and motherlesse Hos 13.3.4 that you may find mercy rest not in thy law humiliation to lose some of thy jollity onely but let fulnesse of grace cast out selfe and all to the bottome Every one cries out alas What have I to be proud of Note
naturall and beloved object The truth hath not made them free for if it had they would forsake all for it and buy it whatsoever it cost them but not sell it whatsoever they might have for it Besides they know not what spirit they are of while peace lasteth and the Gospel runnes in the streame of their liberties gifts services commodities and advantages who but they An humble and zealous Christian would almost tremble to heare their protestations their engagements for God and truth the cause of Christ and Religion who but they in their fastings and prayers deepe detestation of the sinnes of the times and mourning for the sorrowes of such as suffer But let the winde turne to another coast so that they see the enemies of truth lay hard to their free hold and they must either sadly suffer indeed for that they have professed or else bewray themselves to be hypocrites Then they shew upon what hinges their doore hanges and turnes even upon Selfe and selfe-love Then they wax stiffe for themselves then they cleave to the creature their ease and welfares their liberties and worldly contents Why this Alas They understood not their owâ— spirit and therefore it laid them in the suds ere they were aware Now their great declaiming against the sinnes of timeservers and selfe-loving hypocrites is turned to apologize for their inconstancy selfe-love and ends of their owne Moreover another cause is they sought not Christ simply and honestly for himselfe but for somewhat which might bee gotten from him to serve their owne turne by his meanes They know not how to licke themselves whole upon the Lord Jesus for any thing they lose for him and therefore they are loath to venture any more then they must quite make forfeit of If they knew whom to trust for amends or could beleeve that hundred fold requitall for God and his Gospel which is promised to all that lose any thing for him Oh! it would lithe their hearts exceedingly to suffer any thing for him To conclude they consider not what a poore bargaine they make of it when they sell the honour and glory of the Lord Jesus for the redeeming of a poore transitory content here below they consider not that they fish with a golden hooke for minums if they lose their hooke upon a shrag of triall and temptation they can never make amends againe for it by all they catch though the fish were fairer Conscience is no commodity to weigh in the balance against ease and carnall profits and pleasures as Elisha asked Gehazi Is this a season to purchase olives and vineyards and menservants or maidservants They consider not what poor and silly figleaves they sow together to cover their nakednesse when they pretend a necessity of serving God their owne way that way which will hold best agreement with their own ends to shun serving him his way of suffering which contradicts their self-love In all these respects and in many more let us not wonder at the wofull declension of these revolting times which leave the Lord Jesus himselfe to sinke or swim Nay further let us not be offended overmuch at such as at their first entry and onset upon Religion seemed so zealous as to chalenge all enemies of Christ and began to suffer for him But having born the brunt a while and felt the triall too hot and too heavy for them have with more shame and reproach revolted from him then ever they began to suffer with honour and commendation And sithence it fareth thus let all whom it concerneth Counsells to helpe this Exhortation to approve their faith and fidelity to the Lord Jesus as it doth concerne all who will not prove hypocrites now in these wofull daies strive for the holding up and preserving the entire honour and esteem of Christ his Grace his truth profession and Gospel both in their owne soules with sincerity and before men without shame or cowardize Consider poore soule by whose strength thou standest do not look too wisely upon next hand examples of staggerers and timeservers though perhaps thou hast admired them for their zeale and gifts know them by their fruits stagger not at their revolts But looke to Jesus the author and finisher of thy faith Heb. 12.2 who for the hope set before him and the love to thy soule and salvation despised the shame and endured the crosse Behold if examples do so much affect thee the patternes of those faithfull ones who in all ages have borne witnesse to Jesus and not esteemed their credits or goods or lives so that they might vindicate the glory of Christ and discharge the trust which in baptisme and much more in their conversion to God was committed to them to be faithfull souldiers and to contend for the truth against Divell and his instruments the world and their own fleshly selfe-love The Lord hath had in all ages some who have though it a businesse of importance to sticke to Christ and his honour whatsoever it cost them although thy strength be small the trialls of the malicious sharpe and fiery as darts yet if thou canst deny thine owne selfe humble thy soule be little in thine owne eies be above thine owne ends and sensuality Then that God who hath suffered thousands of subtill selfe-loving hypocrites to fall on thy right hand and thy left shall keepe thee safe in the midst under the covert of the wings and shadow of his Almighty power Psal 92.7 Counsells And to this end and purpose first get faith in Trialls more pretious then gold and looke not to suffer for Christ by thine owne strength but get strength from him whom thou sufferest for Get thee his innocency be sure thy cause be good joyne with it a good conscience two excellent banners to fight under and then by prayer beg from Christ that strength courage meeknesse simplicity selfe-deniall unashamednesse to confesse him and to suffer for him which becommeth one who hath received thy being of grace and the hope of welbeing of glory for ever from him Beleeve that hee who nayled all enmity of Satan and the gates of hell to his crosse hath risen by the might of his Godhead and is at his right hand will so provide that the remnant of their conquered and captivated malignity and malice shall never prevaile against thee If ever thou tookest hold of his strength to save thee from hell and from perishing trust him for strength to overcome all earthly enemies he can and will subdue them unto thee divert them disarme them disable them and give thee full redemption from them If ever hee built thee soundly upon his rocke feare not neither stormes nor sands nor tempests nor any assaults shall ever cause thy building to ruinate but thou shalt stand because built upon a rock Secondly be not heedlesse and carelesse of trouble but be well settled and informed in thy judgement concerning the weight and the importance of the truth of God Let
doing any thing toward his owne happinesse Canst thou not beleeve God hath so small a number that the Minister in his duty is to be heard as God himselfe that morality hath no power in spirituall cases that the Sabbath is to be so closely kept petty oaths and vaine words must be so accounted for that we may not revenge our selves upon such as hurt us but love our enemies Dost thou think a man cannot become sure of his salvation by a bare word of God without some revelation Wilt thou with Thomas be brought to beleeve no more then thou seest Art thou one of them that judge the goodnesse or badnesse of things by outward successe Dost thou take foule scorne that the Minister of God should teach thee the right carriage of thy selfe in thy calling the married estate thy buyings and sellings as well as how to keepe the Sabbath to pray or receive the sacrament Dost thou cavill and say thou art as able to teach him in such experimentalls as he can thee Hast not thou an opinion that because men judge thee wise in a worldly businesse therefore thy skill is as good in matters of God also Dost not thou disdaine them who are seely in the world as if they were unworthy of thy company or commendation By all these and by all other markes and symptomes which either I have or shall deliver of this disease I advise thee to thy thy selfe If any of these three cleave to thee thou maiest seeme wise to thy selfe but thy wisedome is earthly sensuall and divelish Jam. Matth. 16. yea as our Saviour said to Peter Get thee behinde me Satan for thou savourest not the things of God but of men And know that God and his matters are not more yrkesome to thee then thou to him lukewarme water will not sooner provoke vomiting then thou dost the Lord to vomit thee out of his mouth And so much may serve for this according as thou findest this use to discover thee so let the other uses following affect thee Secondly let this be an use of Admonition consisting of sundry caveats Vse 2 and watchwords to Gods people Admonition And first beware lest they bee Branch 1 offended at Christ and his simplicity remembring that item Math. 11.6.7 Blessed is the man that is not offended at me Disesteeme not your God Religion choice and portion because ye see the jollity of carnall men cannot brooke it or stoope to the meanes thereof Ier. 2.9 The Lord taxes his people for their forsaking him by sending him to Chittim and the heathens saying Doe the heathens change their Gods So say I change not nay be not ashamed one jot the more at your Religion Be not ashamed nor weary of powerfull Religion because of the deepe prejudice and disrepute which the world hath it in If ye be not yet resolved to be sincere let not the opinion of worldlings beate you off If you be resolved then much lesse let them cause you to be ashamed or to shrinke in your hornes ever the more If the truth of God be not able to backe ye against such cavillers you have tasted but small love from God or sweetnesse in it If you think it hard to suffer to beare indignities for that which ministers so unspeakable peace of conscience unto ye here and must bring ye to heaven for ever doe yee not requite her well for her labour No say with our Lord Jesus Matth. 11.29 I thanke thee Oh Father that thou hast hidden these things to the wise and hast revealed them to babes My heart is more knit unto thee for thy honouring poore soules who have nothing to take too save thy selfe with so rich a Pearle as Christ and Faith then it can be offended with thee that there be so few great noble or learned ones to professe it Alas They have greater matters to attend and while they carry their heads in the cloudes they fall into the ditch their bellies are filled with their earthly treasure Psal 17. and their spirits are puft up with their great wisdome But we looke low and creep upon the earth that thou maiest powre downe thy heavenly riches upon us and shall we having a feast in the mountaines envy their diet of the valleyes No if the Lord hath given thee any insight into the mystery of Christ and regeneration what frame and bent of heart the Lord delights in Oh hugge it Be not troubled with the verdict of carnall reason for as the roote is so is the fruit Men doe not gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles Matth. 7.17 Alas If you see the world love her owne things so love you the Lords and be not ashamed of him before Princes Let the same affections bee found in you when you are compelled to be in the company of worldlings which you bewray in the company of zealous ones due circumstances observed and abhorre the least wry base thought word or behaviour which should cause them to thinke that you are dashed one whit out of countenance in your Religion for their sakes I am not ashamed saith Paul for chaines and prisons sake or for false teachers sake who rejoyce in the flesh of the Gospel of Christ for it is still as it was ever the power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 and so Phil. 3.16.17 There bee some of whom I told you before and tell you againe weeping enemies to the crosse whose God is their belly whose glory is their shame who minde earthly things But what of that Shall my conversation be ever the lesse in heaven Psal 73.20 No so David Psal 73. was troubled at the jollity of such till he recovered himselfe saying such a foole was I yea a beast in thy sight 25.26 But then he addes I have none in heaven but thee or in earth like thee Thou shalt make their image despised And it is good for me doe as they list to draw neare to God! Oh! if thou wouldest cling to God he would make such to come and worship at thy feete and to chuse thy portion and so they shall when God shall visit them so little cause hast thou the whilest to flinch for them Despise carnall reason as fast as she despiseth the simplicity of grace Despise you their carnall reason as fast as they disdaine your simplicity Say of it as Ahab of Micaia I hate him for he never speakes well on my side And do not consort with them in their way to seeke approbation and allowance from them in point of any complement or endowment whereby your hearts should be drawn aside from sincerity Perhaps when you see the world esteemes you for any outward gift in you you will with Hezechia pride your selves in their allowance Esay 39 2. and so forfeit conscience But as Salomon saith Taste not of their dainties Prov. 23.2 Prov. 23.2 for they are deceiveable meate In the story of our Church wee
the powers of the soule will affections and conscience which were as her Peers and the Nobles of her Court and above all the members of the body which were as her subjects of lower ranke but both under her authority going comming and doing what she pleased in a most beautifull and comely agreement But now she hath lost her government they rather sway her with their violence and impetuousnesse For why She hath lost her subjection to God her dignity is gone and now in stead of spirituall cleare insight into Gods mysteries shee is left blinde erroneous and perverse Not as a sicke Physitian who hath all his skill still save that he is letted from the exercise of it by accident but bereft both of power will and skill altogether Come hither ye Pelagians and Anabaptists and visit this Iezabel throwne downe by her Eunuchs from her Tower and dasht in peeces so that none can say this is she Behold this widow sitting as Tyrus in the ashes of desolation and yet having no sense of her losse she misses not one of her jewells nor eare-rings she feeles not the losse of her Crowne and Scepter Oh! wofull creature that was wont to bee inriched with such choice pearles and goodly jewells as all the earth had not the like shall all the world all the creatures shall God and the Lord Jesus and his Ministers and servants bewaile and weep over her saying Oh that thou sawest what thou art stript off And shall she be senslesse of her poverty and nakednesse Beloved give me one carnall man or woman in all this assembly that ever was troubled for this their misery and I will recant Even as a poore man cuts his meate with the same rusty knife wherewith he doth his worke so one toole serves for all businesse Carnall men handle Gods matters and their owne with the same tooles looke with what instrument they bargaine and buy and sell in the world the same they go to worke withall in the most curious and holy services of God By it they judge esteeme affect practise and all these they doe perversly mistakingly erroneously and condemne all which sorts not with them Nay besides this cloath hath taken a deeper dye and tincture shee is plagued with other false principles of worldlings which make her brutish prophane Atheisticall so that if we could see such a one Pelagian Papist or Machiavilian in their true colours we would thinke wee saw the Divell in the flesh Who would not tremble to see such a sight Who abhorres not Esau despising his birthright for his red pottage Who loaths not a Papist in his carnall worship And yet carnall reason the roote of both who trembles at Who is moved to see sots and swine to trample these Pearles of Religion under feet at the trough of their owne draffe profits and pleasures Who thinks such wisdome sensuall and divellish Who saith with Christ Get thee behinde mee Satan Thou savourest the things not of God but of men Those savourlesse wretches whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame Matth. 16.24 Phil. 3.18 whence came they but out of this wombe Nay brethren who thinke themselves such jolly ones as these And yet as wise as they are to heare them talke of regeneration Christ and faith were a spectacle more ridiculous then any Pageant Let therefore I beseech you this terror sinke into all your hearts and carry rottennesse into your bones Application of it who are sicke of this disease you shall not need the fever dropsie or plague to destroy you your bane is in your bosome And will you cover it over with a faire sute not see it Then I wish yee to looke upon that curse of God which commonly haunts such persons How did that wofull Spira by the counsell of the Popes legate and carnall reason deny the truth What made the halter to hang Achitophel Did not carnall reason Oh saith he thy counsell is forsaken David will prevaile prevent death by murther How doth God leave many a civill and morall fellow that stood upon his carnall bottome to reproachfull sinnes To strike and kill in their wrath and so come to shame To commit rapes and unnaturall lust and so come to their ends What examples have we seene of this in our Country As if the Lord from heaven would bee avenged of all despisers of Religion How many of your morall and good natures are daily seduced to uncleannesse and drunkennesse Oh! well may wee say where is the Scribe 1 Cor. 1.16 Where is the wizard of the world that laies up for a rainy day and saith soule take thine ease How suddenly is hee puld downe from all God be fooles carnall reason and dyes like a foole How doth God scatter the imaginations of such as could make themselves merry with disdaine of Religion And what fooles doth he make them How many of your ambitious ones dye beggars How many of your reaching heads engrossers of farmes trades and such as have many irons in the fire come to the state of banquerupts And then Oh! Puritans are wise men for keeping within their bounds But till sad experience come they will either have all or lose all Here some of them are encumbred with sutes at law which ruine them Others defeated of their ambitious hopes and being frowned upon by their betters runne mad or prove beggars having lost a hundred of pounds for moone-shine in waters some hang themselves Sad presidents Others meet with potent opposites who crush them others looking after gallants get harlots into their bosomes small matters are too base for them therefore great things must bane them As Saul falsly of David so may I truly say of this they have chosen her to the confusion of their own face How are Herods crossed and beaten down in magnifying their parts Some Scholars at University losing their wits for their proud aspiring spirits Others thinking to winne the spurres have beene disgraced by God in their Pulpits their acts strucken dumbe their wheeles taken off and they made ridiculous to teach others to be humble and make conscience the foundation of their wisdome and learning As that wofull and cruell King of France in his ruffe would needs force one of his Nobles to take a staffe and runne a tilt with him and so one of the broken splinters running in at his eye pierced his braine and kild him So doth carnall reason put one weapon or other into Gods owne hand by which they runne with him till their owne throat is cut and they destroyed Oh! be all such abased in your selves and become fooles that you may be wise and that in time before God prevent ye by his wrath and so you wish it too late This for Terror I will adde some counsell after Reproofe Another branch therefore may be bitter reproofe to all sorts for their Vse 5 overmuch yeelding to the rule of this wofull mistresse carnall reason
Reproofe in divers respects I have toucht some particulars by occasion before Practice of carnall reason reproved in all sorts I will adde a few more here I say it should convince the consciences of us all that are before the Lord this day for our arrerages of carnall reason We should say as Pharaohs butler Lord this day comes much of my sinne in this kind to my remembrance O Lord the branches of this stocke are infinite How oft hath my base heart stumbled at the purenesse the closenesse of thy waies desiring the doore were opener for my carnall ease liberty and breadth to goe in at How oft have I thought my fine wits and China-mettall'd understanding too dainty for thy matters to meddle with My parts too good to honour thee How little have I laboured to submit my wit to thy will with gladnesse How often have I stumbled at the simplicity of thy Ministers servants as too meanly gifted for my reach How much ado have I with my cursed heart to profit by them as not complying enough with my carnall expectation How oft have I measured good things by their successe Being ready rather to chuse sin with happinesse then vertue with defeat and ill consequence How weakely have I beene carried with partiality of heart towards the godly Affecting them who have beene close faithfull friendly usefull beneficiall welconceited of me tender and indulgent mercifull and bountifull rather then others who hath beene more estranged in affection more ready to reprove my faults How much adoe have I from restraining indignation from such as are aloofe from me and little esteeme me How seldome have I gone to heare publiquely or to take counsell but I have rather sodered my faults then desired that the righteous might smite me How prone am I to looke at the greatnesse of some religious ones and to make use of them in that kinde rather then their good examples and the savour of their grace How weake have I O Lord discovered my selfe to be both in doing and suffering In the one being carried more with outward incouragements hireling-wise then upon a promise If I have found my labours my services accepted with men credit countenance and maintenance following how trim have my wheeles gone If not how heavy In the sufferings I have had how doe I seeke rather to licke my self whole by outward helpes and remedies then by that hundred fold which thou hast promised to requite my losses withall And though I have not runne to good witches yet how have I clave to mine owne carnall reason And seeming to have shot a gulfe how have I beene drowned in a shallow Oh! when I have found unkinde unthankefull and base usage at the hands of them whom I have served in Ministry counsell or helpfulnesse how hardly yea bitterly have I taken it As if I had done it to bee thought well of and not as one who had learned to undergoe good and bad report How hath my arme shrunke it selfe in toward such As if I had served an ill master who will conceale the labour of my love Oh! yee Headburrowes and Officers of Townes let this truth of God convince yee how doe you looke at pleasing men shunning ill will aiming at serving your owne turnes and base ends rather then at discharging duty in punishing offenders both spirituall upon the Sabbath and morall at other times despisers of the ordinances swearers and drunkards Is not this carnall wisedome else know not I what is Alas where is Davids spirituall reason that blessed God for giving him an heart to build a Temple and prepare stuffe for it although it were the lot of Salomon to have the name of it So God had it how little cared he by whom So Christ were preached how little did Paul envie or care by whom And so againe what is the common speech of men If I had ever hurt him it would not have grieved me to bee ill spoken of or dealt with by him But alas thou hast more cause to blesse God for thy breast-plate of innocencie to shrowd thee from God his revenge Thou shouldst see God rather against thee for thy little respect to his Majesty in the sincerity of thy spirit then at man whom thou hast not offended So againe how oft have our carnall hearts intruded themselves upon Gods administrations to censure him for the long suffering of the bad and the crossing of his owne in their zeale and good cause Ah poore worme canst thou comprehend Gods ends in thy fist How doe wee Ministers murmure and complaine if wee doe no good Why are we above election or servants to it Is it well not that wee are a sweete savour in all And so I might bee endlesse Therefore I beseech you in Gods feare let this be a speciall meane to humble us all for this our base enterfeering with God in his holy wayes Application of it by our carnall reason Oh! you who have been so ready to be led from God by feare of parents displeasure losse of favour of betters repent and breake your hearts Ministers who have betraid the cause of God by base time-serving and pleasing men loathnesse to suffer Oh! repent of your carnall reason recover Gods losses ere ye dye Oh! you that have chosen to save your livings or lives rather then Gods honour consider how small your gaines have been in losing your soules for a mole-hill of earth Repent O carnall wretch who wouldest never bee brought to more religion then lay in the lap of thy carnall reason not cut off a locke for God not forgoe a petty oath for him not lose so much love of an husband a Landlord as is worth two strawes for him Repent and be humbled O thou that hast fleerd and laught in thy sleeve at the sincere Thou who hast made Gods worship and profession to serve thy turne and sold thy selfe by it to credit to custome in shop to good marriage by it thy selfe being bad Come out O thou hypocrite who like Absalon hast openly spread thy Tent for the attaining of thine owne ends Yee politicke projectors and cunning plotters for your owne gaines enhansing above others though with an ill conscience and oppressing of the silly humble your selves and be ashamed Take God and his people to witnesse this day by your teares and mourning that it is so You that have come and are still comming to the Sacrament with carnall hearts for custome and to prevent the Court or reproach rather then conscience who have your hearts on the left hand saying I see nothing there to be had it is no likely thing Abana can heale me and Jordan can cure my leprosie Me thinkes I feare I shall goe home as I come and lose my journey Oh! above all others repent yee of this carnall dispute Naman repented repent you yee have sinned with him repent with him on Gods name The Lord from heaven beloved showre downe blessing and convince your
into the dungeon and then it falls downe as Saul with that light which shone about him Act. 9. and saith what wilt thou have me to doe I am as thou wilt have me 1 Sam. 3. my wisdome my wit shall be thine speake Lord and thy servant heareth he that formerly should have perswaded me of this might as easily have forced me to say it is light at midnight But Lord now I am a foole in my selfe meerly empty of mine owne sense and wholly thine addicted to sweare to thine edicts and if thou sâ—â—ak the word I lay hand upon mouth and have done This is to be as a little child whom ye may winne to say what ye list Oh! this is the next way to make thee wise to salvation This is to be unto Gods wisdome as the Queene of Sheba was to Salomons even to have no spirit left in her Oh! thou must say with David My fingers shall forget to play and lose all cunning Thirdly thou must so be stript of all thine owne Word of truth must cast the seed of God into the soule when once emptied of her selfe as yet thou must Branch 3 not be a meere void and empty one of all other wisdome But the word of truth must be shed as seed into thy soule and the principles thereof must be infused into it to informe it and to create of nothing a new nature of divine light into it I say as they spake in Act. 23.7 If an Angell from heaven have revealed any thing from heaven to him we will not gainesay it These words the Pharisees used of set purpose to oppose the Sadduces who denyed Angels and souls of men So must thou That which hath beene most contrary to thy wisdome must now bee all in all Now thou must oppose thy selfe thus If God have revealed any truth of his from heaven I will sooner cast thee out then resist it Be thou as parties who put their matters to compromise They are first bound in bonds to stand to award So doe thou binde thy carnall reason as a dogge to the stake that it stirre not a foote nor once mute while God is speaking yea doe thus with gladnesse as poore men are glad to be bound to arbitrement because they desire an end So thou because thou desirest to be savingly wise be glad there is such a word of truth shining in a darke place and open all windows to let it in do not stop any crevis of light which might enter but greedily attend study meditate in this word till the Lord thereby have let it into those darke corners of the heart that was before in the shadow of death and till the truth doe incorporate with thine understanding and cause the scales of darkenesse to fall off as Pauls did that thou maiest see cleerely those things that concerne thy peace All the fogs mists and cavills of carnall reason being scattered Oh! let her interrupt the Lord as she will yet the soule knowes whither to goe for deciding the question she will not forfeit her bond by which shee is bound to stand to the last decision of the word Fourthly get the spirit of the Lord Jesus into thy soule The fourth The Spirit of the Lord Jesus must create holy wisdome in the soule Joh. 1.18 who is the active worker of true and sanctified wisdome in the renued soule According as the Apostle tells us He is made unto us of the Father wisedome c. He enlightens every one that comes into the world with true light being that light which the soule must come by to the Father whose light cannot else be approached By the flesh of the Lord Jesus the soule is made capable of this light of the word else there is no capablenesse And the Spirit of the Lord Jesus workes the soule into this light because it reveales him unto it in the mystery of reconciliation and forgivenesse For why Till the soule be made wise to salvation all her wisdome is only in the brain will not hold The Spirit of Christ therefore lets into the heart as well as the head of the beleever this light and conveies the goodnesse warmth and sweet of it into the soule and that it is which causes it to dwell in the soule and to be an immortall and unâ—â— caying light which shall abide to eternall life till the soule see light in Gods light else the light of the Hypocrite is but a violent and dim twilight caused rather by a necessity of conviction then a powerfull perswasion Therefore apply thy selfe especially to such helpes as may bring Christ into thy soule The sight of his salvation to thy soule is the quintessence of spirituall wisdome this will cause thee to grow in all light when once thou art enlightned in the mystery of acknowledging Christ to be thy Saviour Ephe. 1.18 For why This will teach thee that Christ is all godlinesse in a mystery all the whole truth of God is lapped up in him as his infants body was lapped up in cloaths and swath-bands Else all knowledge is but a guessing and conjecturall thing count it then thy chiefe wisdome to be wise in escaping the snares of death and in beleeving unto salvation Oh! who shall bring me where I shall heare a Sermon of Christ to pardon me to reconcile me to God! If faith in the Lord Jesus once turne thy stream and carry thee with a fuller sway to heaven then all thy worldly wit carried thee before to thy cavills and objections there is hope thou hast well quitted thy selfe of carnall reason Faith the true eye to behold the mysteries of salvation Fifthly looke with the eye of faith into all the mysteries of godlinesse to beare downe carnall reason No mystery can be understood without faith The Spirit of God workes faith first as that instrument whereby the soule is led into all the secrets of God Faith by a promise will make carnall reason stand by as a very foole Hence it is that the spirituall man is said to judge all things even the hidden things of God And yet to be judged of no man 1 Cor. 3. Why Because the light of faith is the highest light All other lights are of a lower kinde And hence it is that a carnally wise man comming to heare a poore soule to speake by the light of faith touching the matters of God stands as a man astonished and as a foole in the presence of a wise man For why The Spirit which revealed the promise of salvation reveales therewith all other promises and all parts of the will of God So then I say in the fifth place let faith subdue thy reason and shew thee a reall sensiblenesse savour and wisdome in all the matters of God By her eye judge of the Sacraments discerne the reall presence of Christ there though not really carnall behold a sacramentall union betweene him and the Elements for the carrying of the soule into
3.8 Let things of profit and pleasure yeeld to things honest 1 Tim. 6.6 Trust not men upon faire pretences but first trie them Be neither stout to beleeve nothing nor credulous to beleeve any thing These may serve for a taste lest I digresse too far Thus much for the use of Exhortation Vse 7 Now for the other two of encouragement and comfort First let this point encourage the simple Silly ones have an advantage about carnall reason poore meane in wit and parts that though they be cast out as Ipta Judg. 20. from their brethren and as the poore blind man Joh. 9. Yet the Lord Jesus will not forsake them They want excesse of wisdome but they also are thereby rid of much carnality and savour of the flesh and so their enmity to God is the lesse Defects have made many happy they had perished if not perished A reverend man of God once said it was well for him he was lame on his hand for else he had never in shew beene either Minister or Christian Many husbands who have wives and wives who have husbands of lesse pregnancy and parts then others let them know that in this defect they have a blessing they have the lesse carnall opposition to encounter in each other and the Divell hath the lesse colour to tempt them to shrewish discontented and churlish behaviour I know that sillinesse is a want in nature yet I say weaknesse in parts if there be any competency of understanding may as soone attaine grace as greater abilities I dare not say that in sillinesse it selfe there is any praise for the silly lye open another way to bee seduced both by too much credulity and levity in minde and manners But this I say if God please to worke the fort of carnall reason is more weake in such and sooner shot downe As I say of them whose wealth credit learning birth and dexterity is small and cannot greatly commend them to the world so I say also of these both the account they are to make to God is lesse and their obstacles to beleeving are not so strong as others Is it not a cause of blessing God that he hath removed those brasen barres which doe so hold out faith in others Although then poore soules ye are slighted in the world yet if ye cast up your recknings right you may say Lord seeing it is no better I thanke thee it is no worse Except I saw more of the witty and wise to prove Religious then doe I thinke it is well enough as it is I see the least dramme of grace is so pretious and great parts doe need so great a measure of it I cannot but set mine heart at rest and content my selfe with my portion I know Lord thou art not an hard Master to gather and reape where thou neither strawest nor sowest Thou requirest no more then according to the abilities thou givest If I have poore gifts yet I blesse thee for fewer lets In this respect I can digest my weake apprehension judgement memory and parts and withall the disrepute of the world I would not for all the worldly wisdome of the ungodly change that simple facility of my heart to stoope to the word and to submit to the truths of God So long as I see Religion to consist in the denying of somewhat Religion stanus as much in denying of somewhat as the enjoying of it rather then in the addition of any thing I shall not murmure that I have bought some vacancy of distempers cavillings and resistings of grace with the paring of some superfluities which may be spared counting them happy deffects since thou wilt have it so I see although no excellency of man can resist thee if thou wilt abase it to the simplicity of Christs 2 Cor. 10. yet not many such are called 1 Cor. 1. but rather such as have little to lose and are glad that Christ will owne them Matth. 11.6 Mutter not at the worldly wise their portion and jollity for you know not with what lets they are encumbred Alas they must first consult long with their carnall wisdome and if that gainsay they must obey and how long will it be ere your stout hearts and stomacks will come down God must take them as the she-wilde Asse in her monthes when they are in straits if he will have ought from them Oh! they must have the good will of their jolly and gallant wives or husbands or kindred they must consult with their greatnesse and what carnall inconveniences follow the profession of the Gospel If these consent nor they cannot come If old customes gaming 's companionships meriments their proud wives usurious courses great businesse in the world will not stand with this simplicity they must not meddle Agrippa was in more chains upon the throne then Paul at the bar in this kinde Act. 26. he was almost perswaded but his clogs of state and bravery pulled him backe A world of Lions is in the way no hope to overcome them The lands of Elimelec they would have but Ruth they will not marry Ruth ult one objection or other is against it And therefore I conclude you that want these pulbacks beare the more indifferently some defects They who will not sow till weather be good may stand out altogether but your coast is alwaies cleare Blesse God wonder at your lot and say Lord why should such a plaine Iacob bee chosen and Duke Esau refused A poore limping halting creature be preferred to such a Potentate A poore David chosen from the sheepe and a tall Eliab rejected The rich guests excluded and poore beggers under hedges and in high wayes welcome truly because the Lord hath chosen them to confound greatnesse and carnall reason Oh! I blesse thee O father for it even so it is because thou pleasedst so to have it Branch 2 And to finish the use let me adde a word of consolation to all Gods people Thanksgiveing due to God for freedome and presse them to blesse God that they have shot this gulfe God hath not done little for such How many have been left drowned in this whirlepoole your selves escaping It is a token God meanes to impart himselfe yet more familiarily unto you and come in and sup yea dwell with you being humble and broken because he hath taken downe such a vaile of separation a wall of defiance in you He hath cast downe your high things that you might stoope to the obedience of Christ Returne with Naaman and bee thankefull No patient owes so much to a Physitian for his cure in a desperate case as thou to the Lord yea by this cure of carnall reason beleeve and get experience with David for time to come He that saved me from the Beare and Lion will also save me from this Philistin Get hope and confidence that God will cast out those remnants and roots of this poison which yet abide hold downe your corky bubbling flesh daily your
sparke wits ripe heads experience and abilities Implore still the same sad hand of the spirit to suppresse them from pearking up you shall finde it will not quite leave you till death but be not discouraged It had the birthright first and birth-rights hold long Iacob had recovered the right of birth when Isaac blessed him yet it was five hundred yeares ere he got possession in the meane time Iacob was a prisoner and slave in Egypt a pilgrim in the wildernesse and in Canaan no Lord over Edom till David and other Kings subdued it But seeing it was Iacobs by promise he got it at last and so shalt thou at death though the whiles thou be held down mightily by thy enemy as Hannah with Peninnah Trust God that neither thy owne corruption within nor yet the world and error of the wicked without with all their carnall jollity shall pluck thee from thy sincerity That which hath beene the bane of thousands zealous Ministers Magistrates Gentlemen Courtiers Citizens Lawyers Students and others yet shall not be thine if thou wilt cleave to God! Oh! beware lest Satan conspiring with thy carnall heart disguise thee not and make thee a time-server When thou seest so many of thy time and parts education disposition kindred and family still to be left to their cavills descants and the streame of unmortified reason loathing and scorning to stoop to the conditions of Christ either to doe for him or to suffer Oh! be thankefull and thinke thy state happy whom God pulled as a legge out of a Beares jaw or a brand out of the fire and consider how much better it is to beare now and then a squib for thy Religion then to bee made a booty to the Divell for thy revolting Thus much for this and the rest of the uses belonging to this doctrine Now I must not forget my promise beloved and by so fit an occasion I must answer a question and that is this Answer to a maine quaere May not carnall reason in Quest 1 any case be used If not Whether carnall policy be unlawfull Answ Yes As appeares by the particulars 1. Politicke and crafty shifting how farre may policy be admitted with safety of conscience and in what particulars For the first carnall reason if convinced so to be for sometime lawfull policy may seeme to be carnall and yet is not is simply unlawfull As may appeare by these particulars First politicke shifting with an officious lye or an handsome sudden evasion though against truth Thus the midwives made a lye to avoid the murther of the Israelitish women True it is the Lord covered it in mercy because the scope and end was holy and tending to charity and it said the Lord built them houses yet not for their lying but for their mercy The like I say touching the woman that concealed Ahimaaz and Ionathan saying They were gone over the brooke when they were in the Well So Rahab hid the spies and is commended for it Heb. 11. but not for her lye saying that they were gone I say not that they ought to have discovered them nor doe I say it is easie to answer the question what should be done in that or the like cases the Lord keepe us from straits and from horned occasions and hard exigents which are both waies difficult but I say these things are not lawfull we leave the dispensation and issue of such things to God to whom only mercy and pardon belongs when the soule hath offended by a kinde of necessity But to affirme that God may be or is pleased by a lye or needs it were horrible Now then if a shift or a lye for a good end a weighty and holy end yet cannot be maintained as warrantable what shall those carnall shifts be counted which wicked men use to conceale themselves when their owne lewdnesse hath brought them into straits As Ieroboams wives policy to disguise herselfe going to the blinde Prophet and making herselfe another because she feared Ahija for her Idolatry So Sauls disguising himselfe when he went to the witch and making himselfe another lest else his wicked purpose had been defeated And the like may be said of the ordinary lyes and mannerly shifts used to serve mens owne turnes when there is either a denyall of a truth or affirmation of a falshood As when a servant for some respects doth answer shiftingly to any that shall call for his Master and aske whether he be within or at home and shâ—ll either deny it or further adde he is gone to such a place being yet false of which sort are infinite other tricks in common use among men and counted veniall toyes as in promising to goe to such a place to doe such a thing to come to a friend no limitation set downe and yet faile c. Secondly politicke closenesse darkenesse 2. Politicke closenesse and neutrality and reserved neutrality to go no further in Religion then we can come off faire and make our own retreat safe without endangering of our selves in any kinde obeying the commands of men by disobeying God This is a reall falshood of heart and practice which we call temporising comming from a base deceitfulnesse of the spirit to God-ward and is a deserting of God and his cause yea though it be through feare or frailty as Peters deniall and the revolt of many that suffered in time of persecution But much more when either no danger or not so great is to be feared Sutable whereto is that cunning temporising that lookes at the displeasing of men more then God Gal. 2. as when Peter at Antioch ate meates forbidden by the ceremony as confessing an abrogation and yet when there came Jewes thither he withdrew and abstained from them to avoid quarrelling 3. Politicke carnall equivocations and reservations Thirdly politick reservation of conscience in the actuall committing of an evill As in Queene Maries time many would goe to Masse with their bodies pretending to keepe their consciences entire and undefiled Sutable whereto is the practice of our Jesuits in their equivocations whether in their oathes or other actions when they sweare in word but say they reserve themselves mentally unsworne and meant it not or by some trick of exception which they suggest to themselves viz. That such a one went not this way pointing to their sleeve or that they were not in such a place of company meaning to betray it to others c. 4. Politicke selfe-love Fourthly politicke indirectnesse of course swerving from providence and duty for a mans owne indemnity as when David fearing the Philistins who discovered him to be their enemy and distrusting Gods protection let his spittle fall downe upon his beard and scrabbled upon the doores 1 Sam. 21.13 so that he was thereupon taken as a mad man by Achish and so escaped So the Papists have a trick which they call good guile much what the same when we call an honest theefe or
Naaman to see what a world of pride was hidden in thy counterfeit crouching and hypocrisie Levit. 13.45 Thou shalt cry out with that leper and say Oh uncleane Oh proud wretch I was humble in a way of mine owne while I had my will while all was well taken But when the Law came and convinced me that all was from and for my selfe then as Cain so did my countenance fall then I was mad and rebelled like a Tiger If I had beene truly humble I should have counted him my friend that would reprove me and his wounds to be as balme my kicking against the pricks argued what spirit I was of Oh! let this gaster all such in Gods feare And brethren if there be any such here let them beseech him who can turne all to the good of such at belong to himselfe that he would turne all their rebellion and pride and coinesse to the glory of his name and the making of their soules doubly meeker and humbler then before for so it is sinne is out of measure sinfull both in guilt and rebellion but grace is out of measure gracious to humble the soule for both else the word will prove the savour of death Vse 3 Let this be use of speciall Admonition to all Gods people to search and try their owne spirits Admonition to all sorts not to claw this itch of Selfe It is good to search the spirits of others But farre better to try our owne in this weighty case It is good for a Minister of God to beware of flatâ—ering men of this humor for Selfe is proud and coy because she would be soothed But it is farre better to abhorre flâ—ttering of our selves in this false humblenesse of our owne If Elishá should have come forth and soothed Naaman in this humor of his whiles God had him in taming what a confusion must have followed No he left him to chew upon Gods bit and so his heart came downe through mercy But flattery had puft him up to destruction Oh thou Minister of Christ Ministers beware of it or poore Christian wheresoever thou seest this itch claw it not sow not pillowes But above all beware of humoring â—hy selfe in it and consider this If thou canst be so willing in a way of thy owne to take such paines and to seeme so low and vile in thine owne eyes when as yet the Lord and thy soule know all is but to serve thine own turn and to keep a secret bredth in thine own loose heart Oh! I say if thou canst take such paines for nought how wise wert thou in season to convert thy paines to a right object I meane the way of God! If thou shouldest say unto me so I would if I could discerne my selfe I answer thee First pray God to scatter the mist from thine eies which Selfe hath long blinded thee with through a sweetnesse in affording God that pittance which thou couldest well spare him and yet hold thine own too Secondly search narrowly and thou shalt perceive that selfe-humility hath some markes of discovery to know her by These markes be warned against First she is very coy and queazy 1. Coy and queazy cannot indure to bee reproved Markes of Selfe defeated whereas true humblenesse in Gods way lyes open brested to receive every point of Gods weapon to let out her corruption and all because shee would be rid of it Learne therefore and bee warned to handle thine heart roughly in this corruption let none be more jealous and suspicious of thine humblings then thy selfe Be willing that the word teach thee that way of God wherein true humblenesse appeares shrug not at it but give way to it that it may worke kindly Refuse not reproofe inure not thy selfe to utter or heare thine owne praises thou shalt at last blesse God more for one Abigail and her counsell then for tenne flatterers Too tender skins cannot endure the pricke of a pinne How should they endure a corrasive then to eate out their dead flesh Secondly this selfe-humblenesse is lazy 2. Lazy and loath to take paines it conceives that if it should be convinced indeed it must be faine to put it selfe upon a sadder way then she is willing to heare of Abhor this ease be content to be informed of the worst the worst of it is to abhorre that which would destroy thee and God can give thee a safer ease in his owne way if thou canst trust him then thy way can afford if thou wilt suffer thine owne spirit to stoope to his Refuse no paines to amend a rooted error let it not seeme wearisome to thee to change thy course if the word will have it so Thou wilt censure a Papist that he will live and dye in the Religion of his forefathers when a better is revealed dye not thou in the antiquity of selfe-delusion To be willing to submit to any way of God for thy good is a sure marke of a humbled soule Thirdly false humblenesse discovers it selfe by this 3. Partiall she will love them that should teach her while they please her and no further if shee may not teach them how to teach her and put their lesson in their mouth she will none of them Abhorre therefore this marke Submit thy selfe to Gods discipline Naaman seemed humble when he stood at Elisha his doore but it was for a vantage when he had not that he looked for he became another man But learne thou to accept of the labours and counsells of any who are for thy good though never so harsh meane and despised instruments in the eyes of Selfe love them best who come most against her in the name of the Lord and crouch as humbly to the poorest adviser in this case as ever thou stoopedst hypocritically in thine owne way Lastly selfe-humility bewraies her selfe by this she is seldome in a frame but alway in her extremities observe thy selfe and thou shalt finde the symptomes to follow the disease of Naaman Thou shalt be but off and on out and in in thy mood very humble but by and by stout and coy againe It is not easily for a rolling stone to lye still But a falsly humbled heart will be alway breaking out Prov. 7.11.12 As Salomon speakes of a distempered woman shee may bite in her froward humors for a while as an hot gleame in a winters day but she is overcast presently and fills her house with clamors and chidings quarrells and passions because she is inwardly turbulent No painted white face doth so differ from the looke of a bedred man as the counterfeit humility of Selfe differs from the ingenuous hiew of a lowly spirit Beware therefore of extremities and till the Lord hath truly brought downe thy winter out of the sky know it will never rot there it must be the mercifull calme of grace which must bring a setled state upon thy soule It is no condition of safety to be trusted to which alway
is thus which yet cannot be avoided till the love of God come in stead of love of Selfe to enforce the soule as by a principle of powerfull perswasion to a sweet frame of spirit well appaid by the promise and abhoring such extremities Vse 4 In which respect lastly be exhorted to be humble in Gods way Be humble in that aâ—d spare not Be humble in Gods way Esay 55.2 there is no feare of excesse in the way which God hath chalked out Be earnest in prayer for this wisdome to spend thy labour to purpose and thy silver in that which can profit thee Ascribe this prerogative to the Lord that he onely must teach the soule both how and wherein to expresse humility and account all other a device of Selfe serving to no other end save to barre the Lord out of the soule in the maine point of selfe-deniall and to nouzle up it selfe in pride and ease the Lord onely who knowes the heart knowes the secret basenesse and pride that lurkes therein and by what meanes it may be best searched out and purged For us to affect other waies and to be humble where God requires it not is to set our selves on worke and to be wiser then God and therefore let no such looke for requitall at his hands Jam. 4. God resists all proud ones and none more then those who are proud under a maske of devotion and humblenesse Let us hearken what God saith and abase our selves in his way and then our hearts as well as our habits shall be so and we shall not lose our reward For so saith Saint Peter he giveth grace to the humble And he who denieth any thing for me wealth credit wife child having first denied himselfe shall have an hundred fold here and hereafter eternall life Let this use then be a spur to quicken our pace in the use of the former doctrine of selfe deniall of which I will now speake no more having handled it at large Thus much for this doctrine 1. Part of his distemper Rage The other point and last of this verse is Naamans rage It may seem as strange as the former For why What cause was given him to carry himselfe thus If Elisha had dealt by him as by Iehoram handled him roughly at the doore and chased him away with disdaine If hee had answered his request with a scorne as our Saviours did the womans Matth. 15. Away thou dogge what hast thou to doe with childrens bread Thy disease is past cure I will not meddle with such a nasty one as thou an enemy and Champion against the Church of God then indeed had he a just cause of wrath and rage The ground of the point opened But now he hath an answer of mercy and love and hope from one that sent for him for the nonce when he was at a set and lo because onely he crosses him in a circumstance that is that he concurres not with his humour for the manner of curing but sends him word of another way for this alone hee findes enough in his heart to picke a quarrell and to depart in a rage Ah poore wretch If thou hadst now seene thy waywardnesse and foolish strugling against mercy thou wouldest have abhorred this curst humor of thine and wondred that mercy could so have enclosed such a rebell in her armes as to heale him against his will For why Had it beene but a Physitian should have prescribed a medicine one of seven which he could thinke of wouldest thou have taught him how to cure thee Would not a Physitian have said If thou be wiser then I what dost thou here Goe heale thy selfe How is it then that in a desperate case onely in Gods power to heale thou art so carelesse of his counsell that thou railest at the messenger and art ready to goe away in a rage Oh! this is surely for our example brethren to learne by doe not cast off the point ere it come at you say not that he was an heathen a Noble man of great spirit and they will beare no affronts True it is so hee was But this was neither the fruit of ignorance properly nor yet of greatnesse although of both in part but of that disease which all of us carry in our bosomes that is Selfe and selfe-love be wee never so enlightned to know the truth or never so meane for poore ones without grace can be as proud as rich we may bewray this tetch and distemper as well as he well beloved now you have the ground lay aside descants and come with meekenesse to heare this point that you may bee rid of this disease which though all condemne in Naaman yet few see in themselves The doctrine is plaine Selfe if she be defeated of her hopes rageth Doctrine Selfe defeated rageth Naaman whiles he had hopes is at ease and a good point he waites and is patient now comes this crosse errand that turnes him over as drinke doth a drunkard now he can hold no longer his patience turnes wearinesse and waxes madnesse I doubt not but you see the bottome yet I doubt not but you would be glad to see it cleared marke then a little those texts and reasons which serve for it and so lead to the application of it to your selves Take that behaviour of the yong man for one proofe who comming in a deepe forestallednesse of conceit to our Saviour that his case to Godward was good and yet thinking so highly of Christ that he could enforme him thought it not amisse to aske Good Master what shall I doe to be saved Matth. 19.22 Our Saviour to beat downe his courage sends him to the Law saying Keep the commandments He being prepared and hoping to be riveted into his course by the mouth of truth as men if they can get but halfe a word from a Preacher of comfort they are safe ever after answers All these have I kept from my youth Our Saviour not to establish any rule as Papists dream but to quash his selfe-love replies then thou hast need of an eleventh command to be doing with seeing thou hast kept the tenne Goe sell all and thou shalt have heaven what a pickle is hee in upon this Oh thought he this is yrkesome this is to beat me off quite surely if it bee thus I am wrong and have beene long defeated my wealth I am loath to foregoe and therefore he went away sorrowfull What is that Secretly vexing at his lot out of love with Christ sad and discontent fretting and distempered at the counsell Another example for the ground of all rests upon a fact may be their practice of whom we read Esay 58. who fasted and sought the Lord from selfe-love as appeares by the context that they might under pretence please and flatter themselves the more in their oppression and stoppe conscience from biting and stinging them Now when they perceived this was no way to speed and themselves would
venome top full of wrath rage malice as a vessell standing full to the brimme cannot be touched but they will runne over Nabal being saluted by Davids men curteously perhaps by the name of Lord or worshipfull answers with nicknames of rogue and runnagate Is not here an heart top full of rage and madnesse Oh brethren I remember what Salomon saith of neighbourhood Prov. 3.29 Live quietly with thy neighbour and hurt him not for he liveth securely by thee What is that Hee meanes well and peaceably towards thee Prov. 24 21. and lookes for no other from thee And art thou so fierce currish and churlish a Nabal that even when thou mightst live in the midst of thy people as she told Elisha thou delightest to play the tyrant and termagant among them 2 King 4.13 I tell thee Naaman is a Saint in comparison of such a Divell nay worse for the Divell himselfe if pleased is quiet Some of you have by your sinne in this kinde got brands of infamy upon your selves you are noted for your intemperance of spirits as not fit to live in a society Oh! then goe out into the wildernesse apart and build you cottages among the wild beasts And yet they are better then you for Beares will agree with Beares and each beast with her kinde but man to man is a wolfe and a Divell Oh make your peace with God for till that worke be over the base heart is like the sea that continually rageth weigh well what I say Should any man or woman here so carry himselfe that no man should care for their company but count themselves best when furthest off Beware lest you meet with your match And lest you that bite and snarle be devoured by others I have noted it that nothing will coole some mens spirits till they meet with such as tame and taw them and bring them so low by sutes of Law and crush them by their power that they make them weary of their parts Then at last they cry out wofull wretch was I the onely man in a Towne who by my fierce spirit frayed all men from desire of my company Such a Nabal as could not live quietly with my wife though an Abigail nor with my servants though too good for me nor with my neighbours who yet lived securely by me and were far from hurting me Oh! If I might now be out of the clawes of such as teare and devoure me how glad would I be of them all What a Lambe should they live with in stead of a Lion It is well that harshnesse and violence of greater opposites can effect that which love and curtesie could never effect Branch 2 But to adde one thing more Tell me I beseech you are these so fell and raging when no man provokes them If they be so being full how much more fasting What are they then when they are opposed wronged and defeated Surely like Beares robbed of their whelpes Oh! then we thinke we may lawfully set up our bristles then we may threaten quarrell goe to Law revenge for why Were we not provoked If they would have let us alone wee would have beene as faire and curteous as Lambes but if they will stirre us they shall know what mettall we are made of Doe they know us what men how wealthy great and how much their betters Dare they crosse us Why Who art thou O thou earth earth earth dust and ashes sinne and poyson Who may not know thee by thy colours Who sees thy smoaking nostrills fiery face sparkling eies who heares thine oaths blasphemies cursings and rage but he must needs know what house thou commest of What set thy heart or thy tongue on fire Jam. 3.6 1 Sam. 10.12 but hell Who need aske who is the father of such as thou Oh! the least word uttered awry the least conceit taken or pritch the breaking in of a cow into their grounds yea sheepe or pigges is enough to make sutes and they will be revenged kill and slay who art thou that maist not be crossed Who hath more crossed yea cursed others then thou Humble thy selfe Oh wormes meat and say to thy selfe in secret Oh wretch If thine heart were tame and quiet the Lord would make even thine enemies thy friends he who caused Iacob to say of Esau Behold I have seene thy face this day Gen. 33.10 as the face of God could turne all this to a calme if there were not a controversie betweene him and thee which till it be decided know thou that thy rage and wrath equalls not his righteousnesse he can match thee himselfe yea although thou shouldest fight against heaven it selfe and dare the Lord with thy pride and distemper yet he can resist the proudest stomacke and bring it low and by that time he hath done with thee he will make thee such a poore worme as that no man shall know thee indeed to be the party And therefore while thou maist be glad to abate thy fierce heart agree with thine adversary quickly while he is in the way lest if once his wrath be kindled thou perish in it then happy are they who know themselves whether others know them or no and who can possesse their soule with moderation and meekenesse So much for the second branch of Terror But to end this use and to goe one steppe further Selfe if she have well deserved and yet be slighted is most intemperate what thinke ye becomes of Self when she doth any speciall work thankworthy and yet is defeated of her hope Surely then she thinkes she may be mad by priviledge For such men looke that their good deserts should as a streame beare downe all their faults to eternall forgetfulnesse and procure them endlesse thanke Spy out any of their follies or lowre upon their merits and they are mad by those defeats Take an example of each See 2 Sam. 3.8 Abners warlike valour was the proppe of Sauls rotten house It fell out that hee defiled Sauls concubines Ishbosheth takes him up for it What saith he for himselfe Am I a dogge that thou shouldest so speake unto me so take me up for this woman God doe so to me and more if I restore not this day the Kingdome to David He could not beare it So Ioab just like him having cut off Absolon in a dangerous warre 2 Sam. 19.7 and restored David David unseasonably falls a mourning what doth Ioab So rageth that he comes and dares David thus to his face Now I see if Absolon had beene alive though we had all dyed thou wouldest have liked it well But I sweare by the Lord if thou come not forth and shew thy selfe all thy people shall goe away from thee it is enough to name these examples Let us all abhorre this bitter cursed roote of selfe-defeated rage and as we would loath it in matter of Religion so let it be odious to us even towards men accustoming our selves to be content though wee
heare ill when we have done well which is a royall grace indeed Secondly this also may be just reproof to others though not so ranke as Vse 2 the former and these are of many sorts First Reproofe such as although they live in a bad course and know it yet are no sooner convinced thereof but they cavill against God himself and lay him in all the fault they would as faine be better as the Preacher and they cannot deny but they are farre from that they should be But these Ministers they say would goe beyond God and have them better then God will make them which cannot be for till God change and mend us all we can be no better let men teare their tongues to the stumps And and whence is this cavill Truly from base prophane Selfe which is crossed in her way imagining that because it is easie for God to worke as he please Cavillers against God as if he were in fault for all their errorâ— convinced and the worke of conversion is onely his therefore they may live the whilst as basely idely and prophanely as they list They would have grace droppe out of the clouds on the suddaine into them that their hearts might all at once be humbled comforted and turned to God before they bee aware and then they thinke they might scape a great deale of trouble that others meet with who are so restlesse painfull and unwearied in the use of the means For their own part they will use good means too on the Sunday and come to Church and heare but they will waite till God worke To whom I answer The Lord rebuke all such wretches God open their eies For tell me I pray you these waiters upon God how live they the whiles Most loosely deny themselves no liberty lust or will of their owne but lash it on upon the score till grace come and wipe off all they spare for no sinne committing to be lewd companions drinkers covetous or the like For why should they If heaven will be favourable it can pardon great as well as small offences If it will not in vaine should they strive For they have no strength of their owne they confesse to restraine from any such courses till God turne their hearts then you shall see what manner of persons they will be when they be of Gods making you shall see what new men they shall be But oh you white Divells you that turne rebellion into smoothnesse and play the still swine who eate up all the draffe how should such as you ever come into Gods mint to be new stamped I denounce unto you that all your hypocrisie tends to the vailing over of your sinne it is not grace you seeke if your brests were open hell and destruction are there and the way of peace you have not knowne Peace you would have pardon and heaven Gods love and favour but your cursed wills you would not forgoe And therefore that ye would have mercy I meane you shall never have and what ye would shunne you shall for ever inherit even woe and wrath I know some of this sort are not so prophane as others but feed themselves with duties and moralities a smooth way of Religion and so wait Matth. 3. Esay 30. But who hath taught such to escape the wrath to come by their sloth and ease What although it be our strength to sit still Must we therefore suspend our labour paines and use of meanes Will God be found in a way of ease of yawning desires and lazy hopes which abhorre to be guided Gods way and to come to his oath and covenant of humiliation aith and selfe-deniall No neither the prophane nor the lazy shall enter into his rest no more then the rebellious They maintaine a secret distemper and pritch of heart and tetch of selfe against God and either will be saved their owne way or not at all And therefore to these I also professe with sharpe reproofe The way to peace yee have not knowne neither will you rather will quarrell with God for not fulfilling you wills to make you such as you would bee without your trouble This way God never knew Nay I say more Though God would save you yet you would not if ye might and I may say truly salvation it selfe cannot save such as would not because it saves none but the willing Pull downe your cursed spirits and cease to kicke against the pricks for till you be content to abandon your lusts and ease you doe secretly cavill with him whom you shall never be able to make your cause good against you stand not right in your plea the Court is Gods the judgement is his who shall curse all weapons formed against himselfe and condemne all those most justly who cavill against him Therefore I say againe take this word of reproofe with meekenesse Esay 54. ult and sit still in the point of cavilling but abhorre to goe against Gods edge by your prophanensse or your ease for the Lord will never beleeve that either of these will ever be content to finde mercy though they might enjoy it And as Esau when time came would have had the blessing but yet would be still a sensuall Epicure and therefore it was finally denyed him So I say to you If in truth you would have grace pray to God to plucke up that roote of bitternesse which springs up in you Heb. 12. for that will defile you faster then all your idle and false wishes can clense you and no wonder if you well weigh it And secondly here come to be censured all such as go yet a steppe further Branch 2 and will close with meanes and be deepe in paines taking Selfewilled ones who binde God to their labours convinced but then when they see that God will take no paines for full price but for serving his owne grace and good pleasure onely then they fret and fume at their lot because God regards not their labours What say they Is this equity that the Lord should alike esteeme of the painfull and the lazy I answer thee yea if Selfe defeated be the caviller Thou takest paines it seemes that thou mightest be warme by thine owne sparkles and have somewhat to alledge why God should regard thee That is thou wouldest have him for thy sake to forsake his owne way and turne free grace into wages Rom. 9.13.14 And because he will not as indeed hee never will be a servant to the runner or the willer therefore thou frettest and fumest at him for not serving thy turne But oh man Who art thou that disputest with God Shall the axe quarrell with him that cutteth with it I answer thee therefore The Lord doth not simply equall thee with such as take no paines keepe thy paines still and if thou wilt adde more unto them but rather take away thy upbraiding spirit doe that thou dost with meeknesse and be content to sinke in thy
conditions in point of reproving thee impartially then the meanest If he do his duty faithfully turne not away in a fume scare him not with thy lookes change not thine heart to him nor thinke his love lesse towards thee therefore rather rejoice that God hath given thee so faithfull an overseer which few such have the happinesse to injoy much lesse play thy parts with God in this kinde but subject thy selfe to the authority of the promise as humbly as the meanest he hath little to take to upon earth and all thou hast cannot helpe thee without the good will of him that dwelt in the bush God hath chaines for Princes Psal 149.8 Act. 17.11 Deny thy selfe cleave to the bare truth of the promise try it as well as thou wilt as those noble Beraeans did but when thou hast done seeke no other way to heaven save it Heaven lies no more open to a Noble mans performances and merits then a pezants all were digged out of one rocke therefore count it thy Nobility to give God his honour by beleeving and count it more presumptuous to affront him in point of his honour then any mans affronting thee there is but one way for thee and the poorest to heaven cleave to it with an heart as low as the poorest God will count more highly of a great little heart then a small little one and stoope to this point in hand also David never got such interest in Gods affections by his Crowne as by his poverty of spirit Inure thy selfe to take a defeat from God without rage yea unkindnesse An Emperour for his Crowne could stand bare foote at the gate of a base Pope till he released him and shalt thou thinke much to cast thy coronet at the feet of this Emperour Oh! waite even thou at the gates of God unweariedly and although it be long ere he heare thee and although Self in thee would swell yet beat it down wait still till the Lord send thee away with Naamans answer Consider if thou turn away with him from God whither shalt thou go Shall hy wealth and honour save one whom God will not save Or could all Naamans honour at home have healed his leprosie Came not that from another friend And thinke what a sad confusion he had found it if he had humored himselfe in this distemper finally Oh! as tickling as it was now it had stung him after as a serpent and so shall thine doe thee if the Lord prevent it not for thee by counsell as he did for him whereof in the next verse God willing we shall treate more fully Branch 2 And in a word that which I would say in generall to all is this Try your selves well in your selfe-defeats Try thy selfe how the defeating of Selfe worketh with thee whether Satan mixe himselfe with them to enflame corruption and to make sinne out of measure sinfull or whether they come onely from within our selves If it be from Satan stirring up rebellion then the spirit of Grace may neverthelesse be at worke and may prevaile thereby in time to cast out Satan and to subdue the soule to selfe-deniall and patient waiting for why The impression is violent and contrary to that spirit which guideth thee Therefore thou shalt finde it yrkesome to thee unwelcome and wearisome thou wilt not harbour it but reject it and imbrace the defeats of Selfe as Paul did till the Lord satisfie thy desires But if thou feele that this discontent proceed from meere corruption then know that God calls thee to so much the more abhorring of thine owne way and will and to say Note well alas what is the salvation of a poore worme a gnat to that infinite glory which God seekes to himselfe in his owne holy way What if I lose heaven in mine owne way so I may have it in his way yea any way Phil. 3. Yea she shall wish she had Pauls strength to become Anathema so that Gods wisdome might be exalted I say thou hadst need entreat the Lord so farre to reveale unto thee the holinesse the equity of his wise way that in respect thereof thou maist stinke in thine owne nostrills Oh doe so chuse to goe to heaven with the forfeit of thine owne dearest eies hands and feet rather then goe to hell for so would Selfe with them Matth. 18.8 Say thus I would wash seventy seven times in thy Jorden to crosse my selfe Lord rather then turne from washing seven times to crosse thy command I would with Paul attaine to the resurrection of the dead by any means whatsoever rather then faile of it through good report and bad through as many disasters as Paul chose to passe rather then he would not fulfill his Apostleship would I â—huse to goe rather then lose my desire through poverty losse of friends shipwracke persecutions hunger stoning nakednesse yea Self and all though defeated of her hopes And so much shall suffice for this verse use doctrine and time Let us pray c. THE TENTH LECTVRE upon the thirteenth Verse following VERSE XIII And his servants came neere and said unto him Father if the Prophet had bidden thee doe some great thing wouldest not thou have done it How much more then when he saith unto thee Wash and be clean VERSE 14. Then he went downe to Iorden and dipped himselfe seven times c. YOU may remember beloved that in our entrance upon this Scripture we devided it into foure parts 2 Kings Elisha's message Naamans entertainment of it Transition to the 13. verse The servants attempt And the issue thereof both immediate consequent Two of these are already finished through Gods providence The other two remaine At this time therefore by the same assistance I am to proceed to the third generall viz. The attempt of the servants of Naaman for these the Lord chose to use for the rectifying and restoring of their distempered Master rather then the Prophet through the prejudice of Naaman and how the Lord inspired them with wisdome to give an onset at this dead lift upon their Master to disswade him from doing that which he rashly purposed to wit to depart without his cure And this attempt of theirs is set before our eies in this thirteenth verse The method and parts of it two 1. The coherence 2. The matter in 3. things wherein two generalls are to be noted First how this verse hangs upon the former Secondly the substance of matter contained in it For the former I passe it by till I enter upon it presently For the latter it consists in three points First we have the persons attempting the servants of Naaman Secondly the attempt it selfe Thirdly the inducements which they use to perswade him In the persons observe two things First the relative duty wherein each is bound to other I meane they to him and he to them Secondly their wise and religious carriage towards him as one out of the way and that
in three things First in their reverence Secondly their mercy and tendernesse Thirdly thir seasonablenesse The attempt it selfe followeth wherein with their advising him to obey they secretly taxe his selfe-love The third generall containes the inducements whereby they perswade as first the easinesse to obey the second from his love and respect to the Prophet the third from the Prophets integrity the fourth from comparison of the greater to the lesse All the which points what they containe in them we shall God willing as they come to hand propound open and enlarge so farre as our weaknesse through his grace shall permit us 1. Point of coherence handled Not to repeat any thing then of former things let us come to the first of the two generalls that is the coherence In which two particulars are contained The former is how different Naamans case is in this verse from that wherein the former presents him to us The point will better arise when we have opened it Opening of the point as the text affords it For hitherto especially in the two verses before we have seen Naaman very unhappy in his proceeding First in his wrong assaying of the King of Israel Secondly in his bootlesse attendance at the doore of Elisha Thirdly In his rejecting the message wherein both the way and the successe of his cure was tendred unto him In speciall we have seene the prejudice of his owne heart preventing all taste and liking of the message Then we have seene his carnall shifts wherein he hath taken pleasure for the confirming of himselfe in his error Lastly we have seene him fall to play the foole and mad man wallowing in his bloud and foaming out his owne shame in pride and rage All which laid together present unto us a man wholly wedded to himselfe and foole-hardy to get out of those armes of mercy which had offered themselves to him for better ends then he would acknowledge fighting and struggling against that good which yet himselfe pretended to seeke And now who is there that lookes with no other then a mans eie beholding Naaman in this pickle and misery but would be ready to passe sentence upon him and give him as gone who is there that seeing one deadly sicke tumbling in his bed without ease and throwing the potion in the Physitians face or against the walles would not say this man is but a dead man he is past cure Even so is it here with Naaman If God were as man or as willing to turne away in a rage from man as man is from God how should he chuse but perish But here is the wonder Naamans cavilling against mercy provokes mercy to so much the more pitty his winding and wrestling with Gods armes to get out drawes these armes closer together to enclose him in them If God were as man then were man forlorne And now between cup and lip in this narrow necke of despaire mercy comes in and disputes for him who disputed against it selfe saying poore wretch whither wouldest thou goe from this mercy offered thee I see better then thou that to yeeld to thy will were to leave thee to sorrow but when all is done mercy must heale thee and therefore call thy selfe to better consideration Let all thy rebellions become as so many shamings and tamings of thee for thy folly humble thy selfe so much the more deeply by how much the more thou hast disguised thy selfe and let thy sinne be thy sorrow Lo here I reach out cords unto thee of perswasion made of many twists the counsell of thy servants about thee whom I have made wiser then thy selfe that thou mightest come a little lower in thine own sight and at last become a fool that thou mightest be wise And to conclude I have put strength into their counsell and perswasion into their arguments and authority into their obedience Lay hold therefore of this my strength make peace and recover health and cure of soule and body from the disease of the one and distemper of the other and goe to Jorden wash and be cleane This mercifull assistance the Lord through this verse holds forth to Naaman And what comes all this unto Surely to this issue That looke whom the Lord hath once cast love upon according to his good pleasure and the purpose of calling home the same Lord will so fasten upon and hold close to himselfe whatsoever outward discouragements inward oppositions and resistances come in the way to hinder it till by the irresistible might of his power he have brought them on shore past all danger Let the first point then be this whom God hath begunne with in preventing Doct. 1 grace he will proceed with by assisting grace Whom God hath graciously prevented he will also assist powerfully to proceed till the worke of grace be perfected Let us see some texts and some reasons of it and so come to the use First for reasons in a word the maine is that God knoweth who are his by their names And hee will not lose his owne worke he will adde to that which he hath done rather then undoe it by detracting from it All his workes are perfect hee leaves nothing by halfes that were to dishonour himself Goe no further then Naamans example here God had already prevented him and brought him fairely towards both cure and conversion Now if he had left him in the briars of his owne difficulties and suffered the prevention to come to nothing what a crossing should this have beene to his ends He who prevents that he might assist will not faile of his purpose Moses tells the Lord Deut. 9.28 that if he ceased now to goe with his people the heathens would blaspheme his name and say It was because he could not bring him through the vast wildernesse and so the glory of his prevention had been lost God then having foreknowledge power wisdome and faithfulnesse enough to serve his own glorious ends how absurd were it to think that any thing could crosse them either from without or from within no enemy no danger shall hinder the assistance of grace from that soule which hath beene prevented once thereby Other reasons will appeare in the answer of a question by and by Briefly then for Scriptures Compare first Exod. 5.21 with 6.1 Proofes of the Doctrine Exod. 5.21 and 12.31 The Lord meant the deliverance of Israel both outward and spirituall by the hand of Moses He had already and long prevented them by the glad tidings thereof and the expectation of it But so it fell out that in the attempt thereof matters went very crosse and awry as appeares by the text for notwithstanding the oft assayes of Pharaoh yet he held them off with delayes and the plagues being staid the bondage continued his heart hardned more and he would not let them goe Nay more those very instruments in whom next to God their confidence was Moses and Aaron rather occasioned their greater misery
the poore widow with her two mites this poore wench in the beginning of this Chapter a Captive and servant poore Onesimus one good for nothing good for all things after Oh yee poor souls your sin makes your base outside out of measure base if that were clothed with honour it would afford so much the more beauty and esteem unto you in the eies of all men none so much your betters so much richer learneder nobler then you but should admire be in love with you if there were true humblenes faith grace in you who reads the story of poore Rhode Act. 12.13 but must needs affect that cordiall love of the Saints in her who for joy could not open the doore to Peter till shee had been the first messenger of his deliverance Therefore ye poore inferiors take heart to your selves think not those only to be esteemed with God who have greatnesse to commend them to the world No no the lesser you have here to take to the more covet that which may commend you truly and really in the sight of all that can judge Let none despise thee poor soul Thou wilt say it is not in thy power I answer thee Tit. 2.15 seek to him who as Hanna saith exalteth the lowly and meeke while men behold the poore and proud a drudge to the kitching and to thy lusts wonder not if thou be as the off-scouring of all men but assuredly thy base outside should not disgrace thee if there lodged any goodnesse any spark of Gods image in thee Truly brethren great rich men are too high for Religion and base poor folke thinke themselves under it But if you would seeke for knowledge humility and grace you should see whether it would not stoope to you And you servants that are butlers to Gentlemen or Stewards nay Ostlers and Bayliffes and Caters you should be honourable in the sight of your Masters As Obadiah to Ahab Ioseph to Pharaoh they should equall themselves with you yea be glad of you whatsoever their authority be otherwise if there appeared grace in you Vse 2 And againâ— to you superiours let me adde this Goe not against the edge with God like Balaam when you see the Lord goes about to convince your folly and backewardnesse Admonition Superiours must turne their indignation at the grace of inferiours into shame and emulation Smite not threaten not the Asse whose mouth God opened to reprove you Many of you husbands parents and masters when once you perceive your wives children and servants to grow zealouser then your selves are so farre from countenancing and holy emulation that rather you have them in continuall jealousie and hold them under so much the more Their Religion must be sure to bee their prejudice and incumbrance they can the hardlier please you you are the the more prone to picke quarrells you watch the time of crossing them in their lawfull liberties yea you joint them the more of their freedome for Gods worship within and without what is this but to play the taske-masters and to lye heavy upon them So that if God sustained them not by his power they should fall off And no doubt many are offended by such meanes but woe to such by whom the offence commeth Others there are who seeing Religion to have qualified their inferiours with faithfulnesse humility and peaceablenesse in marriage in their businesse and carriage are glad to see the change but why Not joying in their grace and good examples but because you make benefit thereof for you owne behoofe and content taking all ye can get out of them but acknowledging no mercy from God either to them or to your selves in them Nay perhaps ye slight them quip and mocke them Oh! these women must have their wills or else we shall have no peace and so the liberty they get hey must have with unequall conditions I doe not here speak of the vilest in this kinde how rather many provoke themselves to vexation brawling quarrelling and threatning of their inferiours as thinking their forwardnesse an inspersion to their base backewardnesse and therefore they behold them with the eies of Kites whom they should behold with Doves eies they shorten their wives of allowance give them discouraging affronts they beat and misuse their servants threaten their poore children to joynt them of this and that land or portion for their Puritanisme and forwardnesse And those that goe not so farre yet still keepe at one stay profit not by their inferiours if they doe not disdaine to learne of such as most are hardened thereby yet the best is that they give them their course and still remaine as base and barren as before Rom. 11.13 Whereas rather they should be provoked to jealousie by them Naaman here did so Doubtlesse the insight he saw his servants had in the will of God more then himself did smite an holy awe and authority into his spirit Doe these underlings see that which I cannot What lets me from it Surely some strong lust or humour blindefolds me What a shame is this that my retinue whom the businesse concerns not should perceive that which I cannot Surely it furthered the convincement exceedingly Oh! let us all in the feare of God be of his minde Wee shall not need to subject our selves and debase our selves for the matter But let us not blindefold our eies that we should not behold the light shining in at the least crevis We Ministers let us not disdaine the examples of private Christians either in their zeale of obeying or suffering but if we see secretly grace breaking forth from the poorest in more then common wisdome uprightnesse closenesse to the truth be so farre from snagging and nipping of such that rather we marke them for peculiar ones and although they know nothing what hinders why even from such we may not better our selves many waies Was not Apollo glad to learne of Aquila a Tradesman Act. 18.26 But especially you private persons observing such inferiours as exceed your selves doe not loutishly slight and put them off but say I perceive if I hold my peace the stones shall cry truly these cry aloud in mine eares me thinkes I consider if such poore ones get such knowledge what might not I get with paines Truly I will give the onset I shall else never looke upon my poore child but mine heart will throb and tell me he shall rise up in judgement one day against his will and condemne me when the Lord shall say I sent a poore daughter of mine to lye in thy bosome to see if her zeale could any whit warme thee but I see thou art cold as a stone still and as dead as a blocke I raised up out of thine owne loynes a child or children to feare my name that I might provoke thee by that meanes to jealousie but I see nothing prevailes Nay perhaps a poore drudge in thy kitching or rubbing thy horses heels such an one as
exempt a man from pride and disdaine None is so low but he loves to be Master of something Yee shall not see three or foure cattell together but one will be Master There is a wofull pride of spirit in man disdaining to bee under any As those base Jewes Joh. 8.33 in their greatest slavery yet vaunted they were free men and never served any And hence it is that we call the meere underling the dogge as of a Schoole of a family c. So loathsome a thing is subjection But marke let conscience of love and sense of divinenesse in an ordinance possesse the spirit of a man and this sinkes his spirit by and by As it is said 1 King 10.5 the Queen of Sheba came to Salomon with an equall and high spirit to dispute but seeing more then a man in him lo her spirit fayled her What is that She felt an infinite inequality in her selfe to Salomon thought it no disparagement to her selfe to be inferiour to so wise a man as he and therefore set her heart at rest from any more bubbling thoughts and calmed herselfe to a most meeke selfe-deniall If meere gifts will doe so what will grace doe Surely much more For as it will cause the inferiour to sinke and beat downe his spirit under the authority of a well ably qualified governour as I grant God requires all to be so yet it will discover a divine power even in the weake and unqualified by vertue whereof it will deny it selfe and say I quash my proud and base heart which would easily disdaine to submit better parts of wit skill Religion to one that wants all to God in man although I see nothing in him that should deserve it And this true selfe-deniall is the roote of all faithfulnesse in a servant For pride and stoutnesse in an inferiour will alway be slipping necke out of the collar Shall such an one as I of such breed worth abilities stoop to obey and serve especially such an unworthy one No I scorne it Oh! but this scorne marres the servant because it destroyes the ordinance God must levell thy heart and fill thy valley and cast downe thine hill that thou maiest say downe stout heart God lookes not at what thou seemest otherwise but at thy inferiority and in that respect commands thee not to looke at what thy proud heart would but at what his ordinance hath thought wisest Better thou lose thy proud heart which shall be thy gaine then God lose his honour the ordinance her due regard and so both Kingdome Church and family the good which thy subjection procures By this meane the stoutnesse of the heart stoops and is convinced that is but an equall thing it should be subject And secondly the barre being so removed the heart is let out to the fruits of humblenesse that is to serviceablenesse For what should I refuse to doe for or under such a governour as I see by the wisdome of God set over me for both mine owne and for a generall good and the ends of providence If once I see how wofull a confusion it were to pervert an ordinance how can I chuse but also deeme it a strange unrighteousnesse for one under the ordinance to withdraw service What is selfe-deniall but a letting out and taking downe of a base heart thinking it self too good to serve to a willingnesse in undertaking what service soever the rules of honest government can impose without grudging or contradiction So that as a proud heart is bound up soule and body so an humble spirit is enlarged unto every such service as reason guided by Religion can impose Nothing can come amisse to an humble heart selfe-deniall of her owne accord falls to serviceablenesse And what wonder When once the spirit of an inferiour hath no drift will way of his owne besides his Masters but is wholly his and for him how can it chuse but utter it in doing as it is bidden Goe come doe this and he doth it This for the Third Fourthly hence comes faith to fall to her worke For as a Christian in his generall worke of Religion 4. Grace in inferiors sets faith on work 1. Purgeth the soule of speciall distempers so a servant in his speciall relation of service lives by faith And how In these three respects First faith clenses out of the soule all those distempers which usually possesse the spirit of servants It is not enough for faith to purifie the conscience in generall from all dead works But in speciall it descends deeply and searcheth the corruption which creepes into duties into the graces of the soule into the use of meanes into the particular relations wherein the soule stands to God whether directly or indirectly Else what were a generall purging of evill which comes not into act But it purgeth each privy corner of the heart and brings the heart thus purged before God in the severall occasions which are offered Nothing comes between the cup the lip in this case All particular falshood will be hunted out of a servant whose heart is clensed by faith from all dead workes all basenesse and distempers will give place There is not one base quality of the heart but if nourished will corrupt faithfulnesse if any one string bee out of tune this harmony will vanish any case or sloth of heart will make a man unsaithfull in point of diligence an angry froward heart will make a man unfaithfull in point of answering againe and cavilling any falshood and hollownesse will cause unfaithfulnesse in point of doing the service which it promises as he who said hee would goe into his Masters vineyard Matth. 21.30 yet went not In a word a corrupt heart will be unfaithfull to the marriage bed of his Master defile his children with cursed examples filch away his commodities report wickedly of him as an hard Master who reapes where he sowed not corrupt the rest of the fellow servants and what not Onely faith clenses the heart of these evills and justles them out of place for how can Christ agree with Belial or these with faithfulnesse 2. Furnishes the heart with good qualities Secondly faith frames the image of God in the soule as in generall so in the particular relations of life that furnisheth the heart with sweet qualities with promote faithfulnesse What trouble is to an heart which is diligent to take any paines To an heart that loves the Masters good and is upright to seeke the credit welfare of the Master To an heart that is well grounded what base commands of an ungodly governour will prevaile against faithfulnesse to God To an heart well seasoned with grace for the right manner due measure and the right ends of obeying what service will be difficult Now faith it is which onely can make faithfull And thirdly faith having thus qualified the heart 3. It puts it it into actuall exercise doth also put it into service causeth this habit
good should draw thine affection to be for them True it is servants are not as children in point of naturalnesse and neerenesse for the child abides in the house for ever but the servant only for a time yet during that time he pleades for fatherhood and regard from thee so farre as is meet Quest But wherein stands this duty of Masters toward them Answ Briefly in these things First in a preparation Secondly in a performance 1. Preparation Behold God in thy servants duty Gen. 35.5 First for the former When thou seest that thy servants heart is subject unto thee and that there is a reall awe and Religious feare of spirit put into him by God for thine advantage and that as it is said of the Nations when Iaacob went to Luz the Lord smites a trembling at the ordinance of government Thy duty is to behold God in this worke to see thine owne basenesse and to say who am I that thou shouldest subject the wills of men unto so sinfull a creature as I am It is not my worth authority or carriage which could claime that esteeme and service which my servants tender unto me It is thou O Lord that subduest my people unto me In me there is nothing but might breed disdaine and despising as well as reverence But thou hast covered my uncomely parts by the honour of thine ordinance Oh! that this might draw my soule in subjection and awe under thee Eph. 3.15 who art the father of whom all the families of the earth are called Oh that I could tremble at thy greatnesse Oh! that as thou hidest from my cretaures their owne strength and parts that they might be wholly under mine authority so I might remember that I am under thee far more absolutely then a creature can be under mine Oh! that I might not feele mine owne parts strength wisdome welfare but feele thy feare upon mine heart as a bridle to awe and to restraine me from any boldnesse or loosenesse before thee Lord I never see awe and feare in my inferiours to me-ward but presently I conceive thou art in it to reflect a greater awe of my heart toward thy selfe For every Kingdome and rule in this world from a King to an housholder is under a greater Oh! let not my servant rise up in judgement and condemne me in that hee could behold that in a sinfull peece of flesh which could subdue him but I could never see that lustre and glory that mercy and love in thee which should draw and subdue my heart to thy selfe and set thee up so therein that my selfe might bee as nothing Psal 73.27 that I might say Whom have I in heaven but thee or in earth like thee By this meditation with praier prepare thy selfe first and then the duty will follow the better 2. Performance 1. Yeeld fatherly respect to thy servant Secondly having thus first given up thy selfe to God give thy selfe also to the duty of fatherly and due respect to thy servants and let not thine heart checke thee for any such wilfull neglect of them as might cause the Lord to punish it in thy selfe Even thy very diet lodging and care of the body must be good Thy horse thou wilt sometimes attend busily and carefully because thou wouldest have him serviceable and loath he should faile thee even so looke what thou wouldest have thy servant toward thy selfe that utter by the managing his spirit and framing of him for thy use The Masters eye makes the fat horse and his care the good servant This generall branch out to thy selfe in these particulars First be sure that as thou thy self lookest daily Tender to him his share in spirituall instruction for the bread of the day from God so tender thou as thy servants steward the demensum or portion due to thy servant daily let him share in thine instruction catechising and information in the Lord with correction and reproofe warnings and admonitions encouragements and promises let him not goe up and downe shifting and gracelesse give him such as the Lord hath given thee with praier for blessing daily and know that this is as meete for him as his daily food or wages better unfed then untaught Trust not thine owne wisdome but carry him in thine armes to God and pray the Lord to wash him shave off his locks and pare his nailes to make him faithfull to lay his hands upon him and blesse him that so thou maiest have a servant of the maker purged and made usefull for himselfe and thee When thou hast him tyed to thee by Gods cords he is safe This whet every day will be no let unto thee Secondly feed him not onely by the eare but by the eye Feed him by the eare and eye too pull not down that in practice by an humorous passionate base and ungracious carriage which thou hast set up in him by teaching for this will make him loath thee and despise it But tender unto him an holy grave and pure example walke before him so that Gods authority may appeare in thee Stand not so much upon thy superiority of fatherhood over him as wisdome and respect unto him Above all as Salomon saith over heare not thy servant when he speakes evill of thee that is let him see that thou art a man who can rule thy passions for thy selfe canst tell that thou hast oft offended God in that kinde This convincingnesse of thy carriage will breed invincible reverence and reflection of obedience toward thee againe See that thy servant despise thee not This will command reverence Contrarily the heart of a servant will suggest thus if thou walke basely what is matter how I serve such a Master What if I filch from him neglect his worke speake evill of him and dishonour him runne away from him It is good enough for him God is just But holy walking awes a servant overpowres his heart shames him makes him blush and puts him to silence This is powerfull not by violence but by perswasion both in sight and behinde thy back Thirdly Looke to thy authority 1. In charges bee carefull both of thy authority in commanding and in practising For the former impose nothing upon thy servant which the Lord hath not warranted thee by his word Bee not so vile as to digest any thing so thou maiest have thy worke and thy will done by him Be thou thy selfe also under authority and be a Master in the Lord. Thou hast enough to answer for thy selfe endanger not his soule also to make thine account more grievous Stretch not thy conscience to pervert his urge him not to breake Sabbaths send him not upon errands that day as if it were loose and might be spared fleece not from God presse him not to make a lye for thee to sweare or forsweare for thy sake and the like carry him not with the to base lewd companies pleasures lusts 2. For practise So for practice Ye
effect Now till the one be severed from the other and the soule see cleerly what troubles it looke what is spoken is as water spilt upon the ground For what availes it to lay an outward plaister upon a soule sicknesse or to give spirituall counsell to a worldly sorrow and a carnall malady When the body is eased then the soul still remaines in her distemper and never complaines There is many one that being rid of shame poverty enemies bad husband or wife never complaine after Againe oftimes there is a true speciall disease and yet through the distemper of the spirits by melancholy 3. Unstablenesse c. the soule is not capable of counsell through unsettlednesse and ficklenesse which till physicke have removed the soule cannot apprehend or retaine counsell Againe some are so weake and feeble minded that they through long custome in their greefes cannot well tell how to beginne or proceed in the mentioning of their estate Others have confused legall terrors so that all is not well with them and yet they cannot directly say why Perhaps they have beene indirecty wrought upon by some afflictions upon them in their bodies children wife or name and this hath pinched them so farre that their consciences are toucht and give in some reason against them from their owne guilt and sin yet not in a kindely sort from the word convincing them and killing corruption or leaving them in case to heare of any remedy Others are distempered in spirit yet not from within but without the Divell mixing himselfe with their fancy and thoughts and so causing a distemper in the frame of their soules as by hideous temptations about the Godhead the Scriptures the Ordinances the Providence of God c. And sometimes by heating the fancy he disturbeth the will with base desires and the sensuall appetite with odious lusts when yet the soule of it selfe is no cause hereof in speciall Some are troubled for their corrupt natures Others for some peculiar corruptions or evills inward or outward Some are dâ—stempered about their Evangelicall disposition either about the condition of faith the truth of it the measure of it or the roote whence it commeth or else the worke of faith it selfe the long delay between the one and the other the holding under of their spirit by feares by the difficulty of beleeving by the hiddennesse of Gods decree by the freedome of the spirits working by the feare of death ere the promise bee received by casting the unlâ—keliâ—ood of ever beleeving or of casting out some lust that dogges them or of finall persevering Others are troubled about the truth of grace Others the measure Others the recovery of it after their revolts In such a multitude and variety of diseases had not he need to be one of a thousand who should discerne wisely the speciall case of a distempered spirit Especially when perhaps the spirit it selfe cannot cleerly judge of her own The applying of remedies hard And secondly when the malady is perceived yet the application of the remedy and the beating in of resolution and satisfaction is not so easie The cure of diabolicall temptation is contrary to the cure of our owne corruption He that should urge a poore soule to attend the one or to shake off the other suddenly might destroy it There are peculiar remedies according to the diseases one salve and counsell cannot heale all sores oftimes there is necessity of staying a man in an extremity who yet may not be comforted Againe the objections of an unsatisfied spirit are not easily answered although perhaps the remedy be knowne Want of experience or of tendernesse or as the case may be of courage and boldnesse or too much haste or delay in applying remedy or want of some speciall apt Scriptures to terrifie or such promises or examples as might specially comfort are out of minde and finally the Lord is not present with every counsell and so the cure waxes tedious the patient impatient the counsellor weary and discouraged So much for the Reasons Now I come to the Uses Vses And first I would beginne with one or two generall ones the one touching the dealing with naturall distempers The other touching the duty of inferiours when they are called to treate with their betters For Naamans distemper much what was a carnall moodinesse and rage And the servants who encountred it were inferiours yet prospered in their attempt because qualified for the purpose In the first respect let it be Instruction 1. Instruct 1. Branch Anger must be pacified with meekenesse 1 Pet. 2.23 Prov. 26.5 to all who have to deale with distempered passions that they requite not evill with evill Let the same minde be in us which was in our Lord Jesus of whom Saint Peter saith When he was reviled he reviled not againe when he suffered he threatned not but committed himselfe to him that judgeth righteously And the like hath beene the practice of all Gods Saints except in some cases we be compelled to answer a foole according to his foolishnesse lest he encrease in his pride and rage and so grow to implacablenesse Thus Ipta handled those proud Ephramites who would be answered with no reason Judg. 12.4 but shewed that they came with proud and disdainfull hearts to speake desperately in their wrath An exception When hee saw them more enraged with his equall answers he fell to blowes and cooled their courage with slaying two and forty thousand of them And the truth is none but dogged hearts and treacherous spirits will be incensed by softly speeches For the Lord hath appointed it as a quencher of the cause of wrath Pride and Selfe are the matter and cause of this distemper and that which kills these kills the effect Mildenesse and love will shame pride and put it to confusion and when an angry man sees his wrathfull face and sparkling eyes in a quiet glasse he is astonished and afraid of himselfe but if he see himselfe in another which is like himselfe he is enraged to try who shall shout furthest in the Divells bow None save a Iudas will be provoked with mildenesse And therefore it is just that such should be left to the fruit of their owne hands to reape as they sow But usually it is otherwise and so have the Saints practised Not onely such as have stood in feare of the angry as it stood Abigail upon to please David with faire words and with kinde presents 1 Sam. 25. because she saw him armed to make havoke but even such as had power to revenge themselves Thus Gedeon when he could have served those Ephramites as Ipta after did yet he chose rather to appease them by faire speech Alas saith hee Judg. 8.3 you shall not need to grudge me this victory for what is my strength and prowesse to yours And who knowes not Ephraim to be chiefe of the tenne tribes Or what is the whole vintage of Abiezer to the after
gatherings of Ephraim Oh this pleased them well and so their fiercenesse abated So David when he had the advantage of Saul twice 1 Sam. 24.4 both when hee was asleepe and tooke away the pot of water from him and his speare another time when he cut off the lap of his garment and came after him saying I could have slaine thee this day and instead of cutting thy lap cut thy throate but thy life was pretious to me This for the time shaked his fury and wildefire and although it could not wholly quench it yet his end was most desperate as commonly theirs is whose rage a calme answer and milde usage will not qualifie So Iaacob in his returne from Laban foreseeing Esau his old grudge Gen. 33.13 sets himselfe in an exquisite manner to appease him first by gifts then by great titles and humble carriage whereby he turned off that rage which else might have brake out if hee had opposed him by violence Oh! such Abigails Davids Gideons and Iaacobs are much wanting and almost out of the world 1 Sam. 25.18 Now men have justled out Divinity and made a mocke of it by their brave stomacks maintaining that a man shall bee so much reputed amongst others as he reputes himselfe and stands upon his tearmes and he that puts up one wrong or reproach provokes two And it is true if we be such indeed as stand to our owne and the worlds judgement and barre appealing from Christs we may take our course goe on without let till shame and repentance and perhaps meeting with our matches doe compell us But if Christs voice will prevaile and wee will stand to his tribunall hee hath told us plainly such cowards and white-livers we must bee and yet Christianity makes us rather as bold as Lions in a just defence if we will be his read Matth. 44.5 You heard them say of old marke revenge is the old Religion though in a new cut Thou shalt love thy friend and hate thine enemy eye for eye tooth for tooth wrath for rage But I say unto you marke the voice of the new Gospel of peace love your enemies doe for them that spite you and speake evill of you and hate you Turne the other cheeke to him that smites you on the one cheeke That thus you may be children of your father in heaven who lets his raine and sunne fall upon the ground of the bad as well as the good And this is the same with that of Paul Rom. 12. If thine enemy hunger thirst or be naked give him meate drinke and cloathing Rom. 12. thus heaping hot coales upon his head recompencing evill with good And lest ye should think there is one Divinity for plaine folke and another for Courtiers Gentlemen and brave sparkes of hot and noble bloud looke I pray upon Elisha's Divinity which hee brought to Ieroboams Court 2 King 6.21 when he had brought the Aramites blindefold to Samaria hee askes them My father shall I smite them But the Prophet answers No smite them whom thou takest in the warre kill not in coole bloud set bread and meate rather before them and feast them and so send them home to their Master and so he did and the bands of Aram came no more that yeare It was good policy and Religion too And no doubt but many of our braving and lofty stomacks when they have met with the affronts of them whom they have provoked as commonly boasters alway goe by the worse then they wish they had beene wiser and held in their stomack ill afterward But I doubt many of our challengers and duellers if they were put upon the enemy in a pitcht battell and in Gods way would prove like those sparkes spoken of in Judg. 9. I meane Gaall and his brethren who asked who is Abimelec But when they saw him their hearts fainted and they were beaten downe To conclude let this generall Instruction brethren reach to all states persons occasions Let the word dwell in us plentifully in all wisdome to guide us in our course The word is answer not a foole in his folly lest thou be like him The patient man is better then he who is hasty in his spirit and in his matters He that overcomes himselfe is better then he that overcomes a City Ecles 7.8 Rom. 12.19 Be slow to speake and slow to wrath Here be the rules If the former examples of Saints perswade not thereto let the practise of these heathen servants shame and upbraid us You husbands and wives remember Satan is alway at your elbow if he can dstemper you quickly will the whole house be distempered and out of frame and your examples will fret like a canker Doe therefore as wise Abigail did to drunken Nabal for drunkennesse and rage are both madnesse she gave way to him while hee was in his cups and in his jollity of feasting but next day when wine was out and wit in she told him of his base distemper and then he was tame So do not take your husbands or wives weapon out of their hand suddenly to wound him or her If one rage let the other pray and be innocent perhaps the Lord will do thee good for their wrath Consider each other the party in coole bloud consider of the other party as of a man in drink prevented by his passion that masters him Doe not now adde oile to the flame and drunkennesse to thirst But remember now God tries me These words are as stinging as fiery darts this tongue is set on fire by hell but now doth the Lord vex every veine in my heart to see what mettall I am made of If now I listen to my lust and outshoot the Divell I may set a marke upon my selfe and be ashamed but if I can possesse my soule with patience now and keepe my fort strong I shall shew my selfe a man or woman stronger then a conquerour Luke 21.11 I will deny my selfe therefore and take away anger from mine eyes Ecles 11.10 and distemper from my heart I will seasonably give over strife lest it become as a fire broken out or as the barres of a Palace Better so then let your shames breake out to others and so be faine to put your quarrells to arbitration and then your selves shall be the first that repent it The like I say to you all brethren in your worldly dealings and controversies or in those tetches which you take each at other Breake not out to open words of defiance upon meer conceits but weigh the reports perhaps they come from tale-bearers examine your grounds and although you finde truth in them yet see what construction they will beare Jam. 4 4. consider that the spirit that is in us lusts after envy If these reports will not beare a good censure yet coole your hearts first then debate the quarrells in coole bloud before witnesses if the fault be proved let it be sufficient that he is convinced
the vile that is the worke of his owne convincing spirit from the worke of their owne rebellious nature their discontent their fullennesse melancholy feares and other extremities that cleave unto them Also that he would shew them what hee hath done for them already that they may not provoke him by unthankefulnesse and what is yet to be done and at what especiall knots and objections they sticke what their chiefe barres and lets are which most hold them downe and if they cannot feele themselves rid of these confusions of spirit yet that the Lord would take away that wilfulnesse of stomacke that crossenesse that waywardnesse which makes their disease so ranckle in them and send them to seeke advice with a minde desirous to subject it selfe to God and to his ordinance and to mourne when it cannot being held in the chaines of it owne horrors or rebellion And secondly let them commend the enterprise in hand to God for successe that the Lord would bee pleased to dispose of the understanding of him that is to advise them that he may bee as from God unto them like Elihu that he may discerne of their complaints rectifie their errors meet with their corruption shew them their state and wants and comfort them at the heart as God allowes them That if they cannot at the first finde stay and support yet if they see but a little light at a crevis they may be glad of a little and not be dismaid that they may seeke still after counsell till the worke by degrees be perfected that they may not lay stumbling blocks in their owne way to fall by but hold the measure of light so farre as they are come waiting till God reveale the rest and not defiling their consciences the whiles Phil. 3.15 and so make the worke new to beginne Thirdly that the Minister of God may be wise as an Angell of God as well to find out apt and meete Scriptures to encounter the soule as the need thereof requireth either threats or promises or other sentences and when they see that these are urged not by the authority of a man but of God whom they only must look at in this case and not man that then their base hearts may no further kick cavill and gainesay and so put the Minister of God to a double toile not only to conflict with their reall distresse but also with their wilfull and accidentall sullennesse pride and rebellion Fourthly let them crave of God a wise utterance of their estate to the Minister of God or at least an inckling thereof that it may not be mistaken for a crooked rule being put into a mans hand will force him to make a wrong line though his skill be good enough to draw a right one Fifthly chuse thee out a faithfull interpreter one of a thousand for love lenity skill patience long suffering bowells of compassion and experience For such a mercury is not made of every blocke thou maist else light on miserable comforters Sixtly above all other things let such persons beware of any base motive or principle leading them to aske advice let them not affect any sinister respects nor aime at any base ends to bee noted for zeale to thinke themselves safe because they have taken counsell to choake and smother the accusations of conscience to make them bolder in sin to pretend and alledge the counsell and comfort of such a Minister to harden themselves against any just reproofes which after may bee urged upon them and the like base ends whereof the bouget of mans vile heart is fraught and full especially in this formall crafty age wherein every one will be Religious and Satan transformeth himselfe into an Angell of light For by this meanes that uncleane spirit will returne with seven worse then himselfe and defile more dangerously But let thy aimes in this worke be honest simple and sincere to goe forward with God according to thy light cheerfully and humbly and so looke to prosper Secondly for the Minister of God let him be exhorted also first 2. Branch to Ministers 3. Things Abhorre error and prejudice 1. Error to cast out all bad principles perverting the spirit of counsell and crossing the gift of restoring the weake And these are first a prejudicate sowre heart enclined to sinister thoughts of the afflicted conceiving them according to carnall reason and not discerning the worke of Gods spirit in such This is no common grace to have a cleere spirit this way For the spirit that is in us lusts after envy We are all a kinne to old Eli who seeing poore Hanna sitting sad with her lippes moving and no voice thought her drunke But when he perceived her to bee a woman of a troubled spirit 1 Sam. 1.13.14 powring out her soule from a full heart to the Lord and understanding the cause he became a Prophet of God unto her for her satisfaction and comfort 2. Error 3. Error Beware therefore of a base heart of prejudice error misprision rashnesse And yet take heed also that love and pitty make us not too hasty in comfort Also ease unmercifulnesse unbeteamingnesse sullennesse uncharitablenesse wearinesse and loathnesse to be enlarged in our bowells as the Lord allowes us of which disease Ionah was sicke 4. Error Also waspishnesse suddennesse and hastinesse whereby as Physitians cutting off their patients in their complaints they are impatient to heare and so discourage them I confesse that the talkatives and vanity of many weake ones in their complaints who in stead of inclining their eare and hearing that their soules might live are swifter to jangle to neglect that which which is spoken then to marke and have never done with idle repetitions may sometimes cause a wise counsellor to chide and reprove them justly yet with tendernesse and meekenesse And the like I may say of those endlesse answers which many make when they are demanded how counsell hath prevailed and they rather bewray themselves worse and worse then better and better for though it be not in our power to settle the spirit sooner then the Lord please yet it behoves not any distressed soule so to nourish themselves in their lowring and distempers as to dismay the Minister but rather by wise concealement or desire of new satisfaction to draw his heart to pray for them more earnestly and waite more patiently till the spirit shall blow peace upon them The second duty Practise This preparation being made the next exhortation is that the Minister of God do first meekly then wisely speak to the heart of the afflicted For the first of these it is a duty much pressed and exemplified in Scripture I say a mercifull and loving heart of fellow feeling and tendernesse to the heavy Fot hereby the Minister of God conveieth the heart of the Lord Jesus into the soul of the afflicted of whom it is said He had learned compassion towards them by his owne sufferings Heb. 2.18 that so
you may say the living are worse and stinke worse above ground then if they had beene rotting in their graves So that by experience we are now growne to trust no sicke mens promises whatsoever they bee Oh you wofull people Doe you thus requite the Lord Alas I foresee you are ripe for the harvest and groane for the sickle to reape you downe indeed at last without any remedy And although some of you make a shift to hold out 1 Thes 5.2 yet your damnation sleeps not it shall come like a whirlewinde when you cry peace most then shall it come swiftly Oh be reproved Sort. 4 And lest I should touch upon outward blessings and deliverances only let mee adde somewhat of Gods word and his patience towards others of us How have some of you here present complained of your sillinesse to conceive the things of God the hardnesse of your hearts to melt at the word How have you beene vile in your selves for your ignorance and unbeleefe How have you wondred at the gifts of others Oh! if I might obtaine mercy of God to pray as such to remember to conferre as they how should I use it The Lord hath heard some of you granted you light and discerning melted your hearts enlarged your affections ripened your gifts and hath any sweet fruit proceeded from hence Could ye also trust him for the creating of the grace of faith in you and for converting your natures have you not given him over in that worke for the granting whereof he was sealed Joh. 6.27 I meane the seeking of the meat that perisheth not No But hee hath beene content with common gifts and so rested You have therefore shewed you selves false in covenant and given over the Lord in the plaine chase when you might have felt and groped the Lord in his manifest providence Act. 14. Sort. 6 Others how hath God lengthened out their daies beyond expectation When as they never looked to have harrowed that which they had sowne not so much as to see one of their children brought up How hath God given them a restitution from paines and infirmities and made their latter daies which they never thought to see farre better then the former so that they have lived to see more of Gods truth both in word and works Rom. 2.3 then ever they imagined But what hath this long suffering of God led them to repentance Hath not their clay laid in the warme sunne hardened the more Is their any power in their soules to breake off their old lusts and to returne to God sincerely No surely but having the better end of the staffe they have prolonged life to encrease wrath and to treasure up vengeance Nay to speake a word to the better sort how many of us in our deepe heavinesse of spirit under the Sort. 7 burthen of conscience when no counsell could worke upon us have even given sentence on our selves that there is no hope Jerem. 2. how have wee counted our lives scarce worth a straw under our feete Yet hath the Lord blowne over our fears made a calme swallowed up death into victory Nay some of us in our deepest sicknesses of body when sinne and Satan are most busie have we not found God neerer to us then in our best health Hath he not answered us as Hanna in our long praiers Hath he not enlarged the promise unto us by the seale of his Spirit making as I may say the light of the Moone as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne seven times greater then ever in comfort and holy confidence above all feares How hath this wrought with us Hath it knit us in so firm a covenant with God as never to be broken off Hath it caused us to walke here below as shadowes and to despise all the earth in comparison of our hopes I doubt not but some doe and shall finde the fruit of it at death But oh that such faire wether should doe harme and be an occasion to make us wax wanton earthly and thinke grace to be pind to our sleeves how reproveable is it Good brethren looke to your selves If carnall reason bee so base what is it to blindfold our eies against ocular mercies Oh! such favours as some of us have met with should make us cry out I have found I have found God hath not dealt with others as with me Therefore whether it be my lot to be in straits or whatsoever temptations I must endure yet I will call to minde the old mercies of the Lord and be comforted yea I will gladly be under infirmity 2 Cor. 12.9 that the strength of God may be perfected in me and though he kill me yet I will trust in him through mercy Oh that this fruit might appeare Who would have thought that when Hezechias request was granted to wit the going backe of the Sunne tenne degrees for the assuring of his recovery that his recovery should have beene so stained with apostacy But alas God hath made our fears and griefes goe back as many for us and yet we have revolted not as he did once but made a falling sicknesse of our course To conclude the Use In the Sacraments and Seales of Gods Covenant Sort. 8 how hath Christ come as it were in his likenesse unto us and by outward signes spoken to all our senses yea thrust our hands into his very sides that if it be not himselfe let us distrust him still see feele smell handle taste eate my flesh drinke my bloud a fancy hath no substance lo here is substance What fruit hath it had Brethren I shall speake a fearfull speech I am resolved that the carnall reason of most men is enlarged rather then diminished by the Sacraments And the judgement of most is become greater by them then if they had never had any Alas they cry not out as ashamed and convinced ones My Lord and my God! Thomas himselfe shall rise up against such So much for this Use also Thirdly let this be a caveat to Gods owne people to teach them to Vse 3 beware of this evill except they will have the Lord reprove them to Admonition their faces viz. That they will beleeve God no further then they see him when they heare the promises urged upon all broken and mourning soules what say they Yea you say well if wee could feele it thus Instances 1. Putters off the promise to be reproved First I say this may bee a pranke of an hollow heart and then it is horrible As we see in those Jewes who were alway pressing upon Christ for a signe Tell us if thou be the Christ And why Not as meaning to beleeve for so he tells them I have told you oft by preaching and miracles yet you beleeve not but as a cloake of your prophanenesse viz. That they could not so cleerly behold him as they desired But put case it be otherwise with us and that thou meanest
simply What then Is thy speech to be commended No in no case For why Dost thou not go by the worlds rule it seems not to be so I cannot thinke it Is this enough to bury the truth of a word of the eternall God under Doe not still speake evill of the way of salvation because God makes it not so rationall as thou wouldest and will not sell thee heaven for thy praiers and devotions He askes no more then his word beleeved will give thee power to performe if thou reject it not by distrust Instan 2 Another Instance is this Beloved so long as Gods government in the Church Administrations of God must not be quarrelled or upon our selves pleases us while hee dandles us in his lap holds off enemies enlarges our abilities keepes under our corruptions tries us by no great temptations annoints our paths for us and gives us better gifts fruit of our labours and outward blessings then we expected Oh how we can cleave to him This drawes water out of a marble stone But let our sunne enter never so little into an eclipse or if God remove our strong holds from us leave us to enemies seem to smile upon them side with them suffer them to enjoy whatsoever their heart could wish Psal 80.4 Job 1. Mica 2.7 in having their wills on us But to frown upon us not onely while we sinne but when we repent and to disregard us even in our most frequent importunate praiers Do we then persist in our uprightnes Dowe then as Micah saith beleeve that still Gods word is as good as ever it was to such as walke uprightly When neither Moon nor Sun appears for many dayes do we abhor to suffer darkenesse to possesse us within because there is such a darkenesse without Can we fall to Pauls remedy Act. 27.20 Act. 27.20 Judg. 6. Mica 7.9.10 I beleeve God No no wee cavill and say If the Lord be with us how are all these evills upon us Why I beseech you Although hee hath promised to all beleeving soules to shew them light in darkenesse and after to turne their darkenesse into light yet did hee ever promise us to keepe this darkenesse quite from us Had Christs love so appeared if he had come and kept Lazaras from dying as it did by raising him up when hee was dead and beganne to stinke Bring me forth one word sounding that way that God would alway keepe one even tenor of outward peace and prosperity over his Church and then tell him hee is not as good as his word But this is a Religion better fitting Papists who know not what faith is then such as we Oh be warned This carnality of ours sits neere Gods heart loades him as the cart with sheaves is loaden Doe not give God over thus say there will be light for the righteous it is sown for them though not come up yet God is good to Israel to the upright in heart The eternall strength of God is a brasen pillar Psal 73.1 which the soul may swing all her strength upon in the greatest straits although heaven and earth goe together such shall have peace peace that is sure peace as Esay speaks and as for carnall reason she shall see it too Esay 26.2.3 2 King 7.3 but she shall not eat thereof it is a dainty onely serving for waiters and beleevers It is faith which must doe the worke of workes keepe fire from consuming the bush or burning the three children It is faith which must doe all these feats Heb. 11.35.36.37 Carnall reason never wrought one miracle but it hath marred many Faith and the power of God hath kept a venice glasse from being broken against the wall when it was cast with violence But carnall reason breakes all it throwes Therefore to conclude take heed of her and learne admonition to lot upon the word of truth for thy selfe for the Church in the promise of God in the providence and alsufficiency of God If he satisfie not thy desires know it is not because he is weaker or falser or lesse pitifull then he was but he hath other ends then thou seest hee aimes at purging out thy canker of Selfe and perhaps hath more universall ends for the manifesting of his vengeance upon a Nation not worthy to be beloved deserving a decree to come forth This is no season for carnall sense to lowre but for faith to fall to worke if not to save others yet to save each one himselfe and lay in as Iosia did for himselfe Jer. 45. 2 Kings 22.20 that he may have his life for a prey and he may not see the evills which shall come upon others And so also to lay in pledges of hope for posterity that when Gods winter is come downe and his people scoured and his old brasse and candlesticks melted he will make better vessels of our posterities even zealous ones and prepared for every good worke And againe a third Instance may be this The outward difficulty of Instance 3 the times is great the Lord having marveilously plagued our spirituall surfeting upon his bread of life not onely with a famine of it but even with cleannesse of teeth This hath beene a sore yeare for the poore and pinched the rich What doe you poore ones now For the rich may scape better Do ye fall to fears that you shall be starven Or your do ye solace your selves that still the word abides for a stay unto hearts in these hard times Tell me truly Doth lesse meat serve you because you trust God Doth faith and a cheerfull heart make a little goe a great way Or doe ye runne to the cursed phrase If windowes were in heaven it could not be holpen Truly I hope some of ye speake the truth when you say Gods word for man is not fed with bread only doth sustaine you It is a signe that flesh and sense doe not altogether beare rule I am glad it is no worse goe on and prosper and as the Lord hath hitherto holpen you so that the scarsity of other thevish savage poore hath not oppressed you so hee shall still finde mercy in mens hearts and purses to relieve and helpe you through this famine while plenty come onely learne by this experience to build your altar with Samuel and say Hitherto the Lord hath holpen us and so hee will he hath not kept us from a Beare and a Lion that a Giant 1 Sam. 7.12 a Dog should destroy us Say thus The Lord hath not yet put us so sharply upon the pikes of famine as that we should eate our owne children or mice dogs cats and rats as in former ages of Popery they have done in this Kingdome Therefore I will trust him still and although there shall be no Calfe left in the stall Habac. 3. nor Bullocke in the flocke yet the Lord shall be my salvation I will not as poore as I am say as a Carle lately did
I will not any longer dwell upon bare illustrations I know that every word I speake makes you stand upon thornes till you see the bounds of the point Therefore first I will reason it mixing here and there proofes of Scripture then apply it with such caution and encouragement if God please as shall both sholl out the dogs and welcome the children whose bread it is The reasons may bee taken from sundry kinds of ease First from that respective ease which stands in relation Reasons 1. In respect of he difficult wâ—y of the Law And for that I say that there is great difference between the difficult way of the Law and the sweet way of the Gospel The Law prescribed a tedious yea an impossible way to heaven Doe this and live requiring so exact pure and strict a way as exceeded the capacity and ability of our fallen nature to attaine Now the Lord in the Gospel propounds another way most easie and comprehensive and that in and by another saying Beleeve and live He changes the rigor and burdensomenesse of doing into the ease of beleeving which translates the guilt and curse of the soule upon another translates the service of obedience upon another drawes power and ability to endeavour after obeying from another who also covers and conceales the defects thereof and accepts such endeavours as proceed from a nature in great part unsanctified as if they came from an intire and perfect principle As imputation of a righteousnesse is a farre easier thing then an infused and inherent righteousnesse dwelling within us So the way of the Gospel is farre more easie then the way of the Law See Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not doe through the weakenesse of flesh God supplied How By sending his Sonne both to condemne sinne in the flesh and in the same flesh to fulfill all righteousnesse Why That the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us In whom Even in weake ones who had no strength by a farre easier way then the Law imposed See also Rom. 10.6.7 The Law saith he that doth the commandements shall live in them But the righteousnesse of faith saith another thing What is that Beleeve and live Say not who shall ascend to heaven Or who shall descend into the deepe For Christ hath both descended of his own accord to satisfie and ascended thither in triumph And this word is offered unto thee is neere thee is in thy mouth and thy heart to do it the doing it is only the beleeving it If thou confesse with thy mouth and beleeve in thy heart this sweet easie way of God thou shalt be saved So much for the first Reason Secondly this appeares in another respect also The Lord aimes at Reason 2 a further thing then the obedience of beleeving He aimes also at this In respect of a further thing which the Lord armes at 2 King 3. the reducing of our decaied and corrupt frame of nature to his owne image in light and holinesse Now as he who aimes at a maine scope in a thing thinkes it a light thing to compasse the meanes tending thereto So it is here take an Instance Iehoram and two other Kings combined to destroy Moab in their journey they were like to perish for lacke of water They consult with Elisha He at last tells them This is a light thing with the Lord to give you water and save your lives for he intends a further blessing to deliver Moab into your hands It was not light to worke such a miracle but in respect of a further aime it was but light So to beleeve is not easie in respect of it selfe so much as in respect of a further excellency to restore us to that perfect image of God which once made us happy it is light with the Lord to take of our guilt to remove our curse and that barre which stood in our way by Adams fall to keepe us from ever comming to God againe in his purenesse and holinesse of nature This may be a second reason Thirdly let us come from respective ease to reall ease And here we shall also finde that in two respects The obedience of faith is easie Reason 3 First in respect of the preparation leading to it Secondly of the effectuall working of the gift of obeying the Gospel For the former wee shall discover it in these two things First in respect of the price Secondly of the manner of dispensation Touching the former of these the price was easie Marke my meaning I say not that it was an easie price in it selfe considered Note this against Sectaries Although if some idle brains might be beleeved the price should not be great for they say that Christ was such a person as to whom sin could not be so imputed as to take hold of him by the curse but God imputed this ease to the excellency of the person of his Son being God that instead of suffering the wrath of Gods justice in his soule and body he should onely suffer so much penalty as that traitor Iudas and those enemies of his Pilate the Elders and souldiers inflicted and this suffering although in it selfe not equall to justice yet God the Father imputed it as an equall satisfaction A most horrible fancy we renounce it and affirme that the ease of the price stands not in him that paid it for so it is the most full deare and costly purchase that ever was paid since the beginning yea greater then the damned in hell pay who by all their paying satisfie not But its easie to us it comes to our hands ready wrought and finished and costs us nothing at all the Lord doth not require of us so much as the wetting of one finger or stirring of one joint towards a price for it were bootlesse so we can but accept it and apply it to our selves Christ paid a most full price to the cost both of bearing his Fathers wrath and desertion for a time although with moderation of extremities and disguisements in his soule and the effusion of the last drop of his heart and life bloud in his body and lesse then this would not nor could not satisfie justice for if it would it should and the Lord offered his Son wrong if he might have taken lesse yet would urge more I say this being considered that he chose this in his wisdome as the best and for my part I see it not to be any trenching upon the omnipotency of God or any other ends of God whatsoever to urge this for the safeguard of his justice for without the integrity thereof he is not God If he would have his Son lose his glory that he might satisfie justice and then would content himselfe with a pageant of satisfaction by imputing why might not Christ wholly have beene spared as well But this by the way because I see many incline to thinke God might if he had would satisfied himself in the pardoning of sinne
without satisfaction made which Divinity passes my skill and I thinke savours more of Socinianisme and Humanity then Divinity I returne In respect either of the Fathers cutting off his plea and finding out a mercy in the bottome of his brest exceeding justice and revenge or the consent of the Sonne to admit of those conditions of obeying and suffering for the purchase of peace and abolishing enmity Col. 1. it is most strange unlikely and difficult But considering that he to whom all things are easie would apply and bend himselfe with all his power wisdome and truth to bring his good pleasure of free saving to passe and would devoure all difficulties therefore nothing could be hard but all easie to such love so armed and attended God so loved the world saith Saint Joh. 3.12 that he gave his onely Sonne But otherwise in it selfe it was a great thing Iacobs toile in heat and frost was great though love made it sweet And so to end though it cost Christ an infinite price yet being freely offered to us it cost us nothing its easie Reason 4 Fourthly the dispensation is easie In respect whereof the Lord doth not restraine nor limit his grace In respect of the dispensation of it and the efficacy of this price I speake now of his revealed will not secret but offers it by the Ministry of the Gospel to all sorts without let or barre That whosoever will submit himselfe to his way and dispensation with humblenesse the Lord will be found ordinarily by such without putting difference He doth not sh oll out or discourage any as if hee did not intend it to them he doth not reject any who reject nor him nor forsake any conceive me rightly who forsake not him And their rejecting or forsaking proceeds not from his decree working it but from their malice and unbeleefe procuring it But as for the Lord 2 Cron. 16.4 hee doth not forestall or prejudicate the spirit of any man to his dispensation but freely generally and fully offers to all sorts of sinners the benefit of his grace and pardon who doe not basely and treacherously withdraw themselves and cavill against his simplicity The Lord doth not put difference in his offer saying to such or such an one I offer it to such and such I doe not he offers alike to all and although some conditions go before the actuall application of the promise yet those conditions are wrought in the soule by the offer in all who doe walke with God in the wâ—y of his Ordinances except they fight and resist the same So then whosoever doth not despise the counsell of God Luke 4. and thinke himself unworthy of salvation but shew himself of the number of them who are drawne and perswaded to accept it he shall assuredly partake it So much for the fourth Fifthly to come a little nearer that is to the reall efficacy of working Reason 5 grace and the obedience of faith that 's easie also For why The condition of faith is easie to such as belong to election When as the Lord hath brought the soule under the condition of faith partly by loading the same under her misery partly by the presenting to her the sweetnesse gainfulnesse and faithfulnesse of the promise and partly by removing all such barres and lets as might disswade the soul from it then hereby to such a one it becomes easie to beleeve And to say the truth to these its onely easie in the true kinde and proper sense of easinesse For why These are exempted from the common sort of hearers to whose thoughts the very conceit of faith is a difficult thing much more the enterprise For alas Naturally what in all the world is so harsh and unwelcome to our carnall disposition as to obey the Gospel Not to preach to heare to give away our wealth to sacrifice our children to keepe the Law are so hard as this But to such as the Lord hath brought under the authority love and conduct of the word and the Spirit of grace working thereby he makes it sweet and easie Others plod and take on make a bungling worke of it Esay 63.12 Psal 23.3 as we see untidy servants goe awkely about their businesse which neate and skilfull ones dispatch at once but the Lord conducts these as a shepheard leads his sheep into the greene pastures and as those Israelites were led by the pillar of fire and cloud through the wildernesse If a traveller be set right on his journey his ease is in his guide As Isaac seeing Iacob bring venison so soone asked him how he came so quickly by it Hee told him because the Lord thy God brought it to his hand So hee had no need of Esau his hunting Now briefly it shall not bee amisse to shew by what steps the Lord makes this worke easie and familiar to his people First Cernaine particulars of this holy ease The first as he giveth them a sweet view of this worke of obeying the Gospel that is a cleer familiar conceiving thereof so that it is not an intricate and wearisome object As Salomon describes the way of the fluggard to be an hedge of thornes which no man is willing to medle with So also the Lord brings the soule unto the doore of hope shewing it an entrance and a possiblenesse of escape working a knowledge of it and withall an hearty and close aime and sympathy to it Hosea 2. It so plants the soule under the promise that the droppings of Gods myrrhe oile and balme do not light beside it but right into it When a man hath got the promise of a lease he is sure of the next vacancy So men that lay in for an advouzon waite for the next avoidance It is a good ease for a poore Scholar in the University to be made a Probationer of the next Fellowship as in some Colledges they use for then hee waites in hope and is eased of the hazard of missing Such Probationers and Candidates of heaven doth the Lord first make his poore people that so having an inckling of his meaning they goe on with sweetnesse because heaven is theirs in the grant and reversion As once an holy man told mee that the Lord intimated his heart with this thought that if he would seeke him faithfully in the meanes he would save him A marveilous priviledge So that looke when any grace falls from God they are the parties whom it will light upon this takes off an exceeding deale of bondage and makes meanes sweet So it was to them of Ninivee Jona 3.7.8.9 Judg. 14. Jer. 4.3 who upon this hint from God applyed themselves to the meanes very carefully This causes the heart to plow with Gods heifer to finde out his riddle and to see into the mystery of the promise and therefore to plow indeed and fall to worke to rend up the fallow grounds of her proud rebellious nature selfe and scurffe to hunger after
Judg. 15. lay heapes upon heapes and die of thirst Once get into the right way and undoe somewhat first which God would have you forgoe instead of your doings and this will cause unto you incredible ease and sweetnesse in your proceeding Remember that speech Esay 30. your strength shall be to sit still Sit still and bee quiet therefore in your hypocriticall devotions and bee stirring and working with God under the condition of his promise and your labour shall not be lost in the Lord. 1 Cor. 13. ult Else you shall suffer losse not onely of a part but of the principall you shall sinke in your sweat and the most despised fatherlesse creatures with their poore emptinesse scarce daring to lift up eies to heaven standing afar off shall go away better justified then you with all your supererogations Luke 18.13 And when you are thus defeated your mends shall be in your own hands So much for this second Vse 3 Thirdly this Doctrine reproves sundry sorts And first all such as having enjoyed the liberty of Gods Ordinances all their dayes Reproofe Sundry branches 1. The chiefe season of ease is at first yet never had the wisdome to discerne that spirituall season in which the Lord makes this worke of faith easie and welcome The ease of beleeving in Gods usuall method attends a peculiar opportunity of Gods owne vouchsafing in which he doth more readily worke then at all other times Commonly when the word is first sent to a congregation as a dainty as a rare and desired pearle an object of price Againe when the spirit of the hearer is carried with violence to carry the Kingdome away whatsoever paines and charge it cost them when also the Lord sends the Angel or Minister with a more then common spirit of zeale to stir the muddy poole to the bottome and to unsettle mens hearts frozen upon their dregs I say when as the Lord inspires him with the spirit of Eliah or Iohn Baptist with speciall love to the pretious soules of men with laboriousnesse and the spirit of convincing when as the Gospel drawes all sorts unto it by the fervency of affections and examples of such as make toward it then there is ease in beleeving Not when the Gospel is waxen stale in a Towne and Manna plentifull which commonly causes loathing and fulsomenesse Not when the hearers heart is sunke and dead in his brest indifferent whether he speed or no Not when the spirits of the Ministers of God wax dull as Moses hands with long holding up Not when the Spirit of grace of power melting drawing and perswading begins to flag And as Micah saith is straitned Mica 2.6 Not when the hearts of Ministers faint in them and turne another way Not when they are driven out from their places and are faine to seeke into remote Countries Not when the affections of people wax generally dead and carelesse which end goe forward rather minding their owne world will and ends then the matters of salvation When these markes fall out the shadowes of the mountaines wax long the wild Beasts goe out of their dennes to spoile and the labourers turne their backes upon their worke because the Sunne is downe Not in these seasons not in death deepe sicknesses crosses feares losses is there like to be found this ease I speake of And therefore Oh you my brethen who heare me this day who have long lived here under the meanes above fifty yeares thinke seriously of your estate If yet the worke of beleeving the promise be undone if you have outbidden and survived all these happy seasons wherein your owne soules know you felt such dampings of corruption raisings of heart thawings inclinings and movings of spirit to embrace the offer of salvation and have fallen to the world to pleasures to ease and as Cain did being cast out of Gods presence to goe and build Cities Let my words now pierce you if any tendernesse at roote remaine in you and take heed lest if ever you finde God gracious if he have not quite cast you off for your dallying you be put to toile and travell for it lest it cost you tenne times as much trouble as you might first have had it for The Lord is hardly drawne to returne to a particular man when he hath left a publique place I tell you if you have slighted such meanes and seasons as these it must be the unspeakeable patience of God which can pull you home at last It were strange if a man who hath lost his faire or market should come many daies after and meet with those commodities which hee wants then he might have stored himselfe with ease but after with much hazard and cost You have had your season your accepted time and day of salvation Speciall application to the present people many hundreds have beleeved and set seale to the grace offered and most of them are at rest with God If you bee those unhappy ones who have received it all this while in vaine Hard for long dalliers with God to recover him again at their pleasure or leasure I doubt whether ever any new appetite will be lent you and although it were I doubt whether the doores being shut you shall speed of your desire though you should runne from Barwicke to Dover from old England into new for it or be admitted to beleeve Oh! How shall I speake to this wofull place for the padling out of her season of ease God hath brought salvation to your doores as to the children of the Kingdome pind it on your sleeves I may truly and in a good time speake it The Gospel hath alway brought you more gaine then it hath cost you Pulpits have beene as it were set up in your streets by your houses so neere is the grace of God come unto you and when others have ridden and trotted five ten fifteene miles you have had it at home for stepping in at the doores floods of butter and oile have flowed downe in your brooks and streets and thousands have beene satisfied with your leavings You have been as free borne to the Gospel What in all the world shall you pretend for your selves if you have never had I say not the best portion but any part at all of it Oh! that I could teach you after all my pressing of the promise among you how to dispute for your selves But that exceeds my skill you have had a fee-simple an inheritance of the Gospel you have beene married to the Lord under long constant unwearied plaine and powerfull meanes long ere I came among you All mens gifts have served you Note you of the congregation you have entred into other mens labours I may adde this that you have possessed fields vineyards and orchards which you never knew the price of never bought tilled or planted For my selfe although I have long lived unprofitable yet if ever God lent me any fitnesse to doe you good
thou hast dealt with thy servant in mercy thou hast not laid heavy taskes upon me I cannot accuse thee like an hypocrite that thou hast taken up where thou hast not strawed nor reaped where thou hast not sowne Rather I may say that others have laboured and I am entred into their labours that is found a sweet and easie work of beleeving Now as I blesse thee for this so yet be not angry with me if I have another request to make unto thee Matth. 25.24 and that is that thou wouldest still hold the like hand towards me in making the life of faith sweet unto me and the course of obedience most welcome and familiar Oh! let it be no harsh thing unto me to beleeve all thy other promises Gen. 18.30 concerning strength against tentations power against my lusts And breed experience for time to come Lord let not the difficulty of walking be as great as the ease of conversion was mercifull just it were with thee to make it so and to try me what soundnesse what uprightnesse were in me by hard trialls But oh lead me not into tentation do not suffer my corruptions to wax stronger then I can master nor Satan to be more fierce and fiery in his darts then I can resist or quench I doe not pray against crosses or assaults but that they may be according to man and that an issue may be given with them that I may say thou hast been afflicted with me in all my afflictions to make them tolerable Esay 63.9 by thy meekenesse confidence patience and courage put into me Let the Angel of thy presence save me and conduct me beare me up by thy hand continually and redeeme me out of them all at last in an happy manner give me O Lord both the upper and the nether springs enlarge my coast and be with me against those Cananites of the mountaines Judg. 1.15 who have iron chariots If thou shalt indeed blesse me as Iabez said thou shalt be my God 1 Chron. 4.10 Teach me mercy to the distressed patience in affliction faith in straits sobernesse in blessings faithfulnesse if a Minister subjection if a wife understanding if an husband dutifulnesse if a child trustinesse if a servant and let there be sweet ease in all these Lust is sweet Lord to my unmortified part but present thou such a prevailing sweetnesse in thy love by thy promise that it may bear down the corrupt pleasure of my sinne so that while thy love and the joy of thy countenance is present the image of such scurfe may bee despised and it may not be tedious to mee to reject the tentations to wrath revenge earthlinesse loosenesse in liberties pride vanity But all these may become bitter to mee thy grace making them so Oh brethren the Lord teach you to thinke of this Strange it is how many of us goe to worke with God in the way of our conversation especially if private solemne dangerous disgraced hard duties be urged wee finde our hearts so sullen weary hollow fickle carnall in any duty which concernes us as if God were highly beholding to us for our worke What then should be the pitch of our ambition with God save that still he would carry us upon Eagles wings hide all difficulty of Religion from us present it to us as a sweet object remove our waywardnesse of will and fill us with love that wee comprehending the length depth and height of it might be filled with his fulnesse and be carried on without any great rubs or sad offences that our heads may not be brought to our graves with sorrow but wee may finish our course with joy David in that Psalme 27.4 having found one mercy with God staies not there but laies in for a new What is that One thing I will aske of God that he will not deny me That I may walke and spend all my daies in his house continually A child findes it no trouble to him to walke in the presence of a loving father who pitties and provides for him So shouldest thou Mourne thus if ever any thing come between my soul and ease it will be this treacherous heart which will come to a point It s that which so manacles and pinions my soule that I cannot reach that liberty and joy which thy servants feele It s that Lord which makes me so darke so lowring discontent unfruitfull and sad Esay 38. Oh Lord ease me here these have oppressed me deliver me I doe not lay in for liberty to the lusts of the flesh to fulfill them Pray for five things to make Religion sweet I desire the curbing and destruction of them for ever and their wasting daily But till thy sweetnesse satisfie my soule and soake me to the rootes I shall never be as I would be nor can thy worke bee as it ought to be Accept therefore first the will for the deed a little for much that shall be one vantage Then againe cover and hide defects and looke upon my better part thine owne grace and not my corruption interpret me with favour to the uttermost Then thirdly betrust me with those principles of love and sincerity which will make a little goe a great way And then make my lusts to be my clogs and as Sauls armour upon Davids backe who could not goe with them And to conclude make the yoake of thine afflictions easie and enlarge me to runne the way of thy commandements with cheerfulnesse So much for this third Branch Branch 4 But there is yet a fourth branch of Exhortation behinde flowing more necessarily from this Doctrine Nourish not feares about the way of God then any of the former And that is this That seeing the people of God have an allowance from God of ease in beleeving Therefore let all poore soules set their hearts at rest and not nourish fears within themselves of a more tedious entrance into the Kingdome of Grace then the Lord hath promised Nay rather let them fasten upon this priviledge not looking at themselves but at him who hath all impossibilities at his becke and can turne them to ease In which respect Abraham is said to beleeve that although in shew Sara's wombe was to be barren yet because God was able to make good his word therefore from one who was as dead should issue thousands Thus faith gives glory to God and drownes her owne fears in his power True it is wee cannot beleeve that God will make his promise easie till we beleeve But one excellent argument to draw us to beleeve is the meditation of it as an easie worke and that the Lord can and will make it so As I noted before the cause why so many start and shrinke from the way of God is the conceit of the most noysome and tedious hardnesse of it The sluggard still cries A Lion is in the way Proverb I dare not goe Take we heed of this bondage Wee cannot dishonour God
conceale this way of his from many for speciall cause we must say Knowne unto the Lord are all his wayes and workes from the beginning Act. 15.18 Hebrew Greeke and Latine are things easie and familiar to some children but they who never had training Judge not rashly either of Gods publicke never come to know them they are theirs whose lot it was to have good education It s the lot of some Countries to have plentifull Mines of gold and silver and it s no hard matter for such to dig it out of the earth Act. 17.38 But they whose lot it is to have no such priviledge know not what the ease thereof meanes Therefore the wofull forsaking of them and passing by those times of ignorance must not make us thinke that those to whom the Lord reveales it finde it to be a difficulty It s easie onely to such as the Lord makes it so Whom he will he shewes mercy unto and whom he will he hardneth Such secrets as these must be trembled at and adored not descanted rather those whose portion it is to bee so mildly and easily drawne home to God should applaud and magnifie his goodnesse to them as a peculiar priviledge and say He hath not done thus to every Nation neither have all knowne his wayes That which hath beene impossible for some to reach unto we have beene borne unto as free men and have found it easie and sweet unto us Secondly let not us judge the estates of such Or private administrations as whom the Lord hath exercised with long difficulties in this point of beleeving I need not instance It s well knowne to all that observe Gods government how different it is in this kinde how sweetly and safely the Lord hath drawne and carryed on the course of some of his servants with ease and comfort And yet how many others not inferior in grace unto them have beene brought through a thicket to heaven Paradise and Purgatory are not more contrary notions then the estates of these two How many holy men Preachers and others have led wearisome dayes nights and yeares in their conflict and continuall combat of their unbeleefe How intricate hath Satan and Melancholy made their conditions that they have thought it as impossible for them to beleeve as to climbe up to the clouds The Lord knowes why he suffers such holy humble and hungry soules to be so long tozed and disquieted without ease some to see sinne more bitter in the crosse and curse of Christ then in all legall terrors and some to dye so Phil. 3. not to teach us to judge them for no doubt they are comprehended of him whom they comprehend not but to tremble and adore the Soveraignty of God who will as it were step out of his course when he pleaseth and is bound to none and hath it in his owne hands how and by what way hee will bring his to heaven So much for this fifth Use Lastly this should be Encouragement and Comfort That although the helpes and meanes under which they live are poore their wits silly Vse 6 their memories weake their courage small their feares great Comfort and encouragement to poore soules by this ease the Divell mighty to beat them off their friends ready to discourage and above all their own hearts most ready to dismay and give them the slip yet the Lord having drawn them truly to seek him he can make the way easie and can fight as well with few as with many He can make a way through Euphrates for his remnant to returne by as Esay saith His bare word speaking causeth the light to appeare 2 Cor. 4.6 and one word of his mouth will cause the light of grace to shine in the heart and scatter all darkenesse at once Oh! how shalt thou hold up thine head before the Lord when he hath made thy way easie if thou by thy base sloth and presumption or stoutnesse and rebellion or by the minding of other trash shalt make thy selfe uncapable of it When the Lord promises to carry thine Arke above all rocks and mountaines and to set it downe at length in safety upon dry land that yet thou wilt not betrust thy selfe to it nor resigne up thy feares unto him Oh thou shalt be speechlesse when the Lord comes against thee Therefore to finish the point beare thy selfe upon this sweet priviledge of ease and enjoy it was not Ruth willing to enjoy the favour of easie gleaning Did she reject the ease which Boaz his favour allowed her Ruth 2.16 3.13 in suffering the eares of corne to be scattered before her by handfulls No surely she and her mother both tooke it as from God Say thus I thinke it was thy good will and pleasure Lord to have it thus else it should never have beene thou meantest love to me else I should have made no such earnings of it But seeing thou wilt have it so shall I reject it No but rather draw others by thine experience to seeke the like 2 King 7. Ease makes men very ready to talke The two lepers having found such an easie booty could not bee quiet till they had declared it to the Kings house declare it thou to thy wife to thy poore children let it be as a loadstone to pull their hearts to the promise Come my child I see thou fearest thou shalt never get any thing but looke not thou at thine owne awcknesse looke at the Lords ease I looked to have met with as hard a bargaine of it as ever did any but no sooner had the Lord tired me with mine owne wrastlings and humbled me under the hope of his sweet ease but my chiefe worke was over Even so get downe thy heart subdue it to Gods promise and all shall be sweet and easie If a Lady being sued too by a King to be his wife should answer were I a Queene I would soone hearken but alas I am a poore Lady Would the King affect her No surely the marrying of a King will make a Queen of it selfe 1 Sam. 25. Abigail hearing that David had sent for her to be his wife made a great matter of it but seeing he would needs have it so rejected it not though she was not meet to wash the feet of his servants 1 Sam. 18.23 And David though he said Seems it an easie thing unto you to be the Kings sonne in law Yet refused not finally to bee so when it was put upon but accepted it with gladnesse No man willingly stands in the light of his owne lawfull preferment save a foole And so much for this last Use and for the whole Doctrine grounded upon this first Argument of the Servants The second argument of the servants Naamans love and respect to Elisha Now I proceed to the second And that is the love esteeme and repute wherein their Master formerly had had the Prophet They saw it now to bee weakened through
who receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet Verse ult receives a Prophets reward In the old Testament when the Priests and Levites neglected their service the Lord was fain to stir up extraordinary Prophets but who maintained them Was it not a custome that all who went unto them for advice offered them a gratification Were they left think we for the Ravens to feed ordinarily 1 Sam. 9.8 In a famine it was necessary I grant No witnesse that of Saul to his servant when he meant to go to Samuel heard him say what shall we bring to the man of God for the mony is spent I saith he have the fourth part of a shekel of silver that I will give him The like is that of the man of Baalshalisha 2 King 4.42 who is said to bring to the man of God bread of the first fruits even twenty loaves of barley and eares in the huske Heb. 13. Shall the Gospel be inferiour to the Law in this point So for assistance and encouragement Obey them that are set over you and submit to them grieve them not nor let them doe your worke with care and dismayment for that were smally for your benefit Let those Elders saith Paul who rule well be counted worthy of double honour 1 Tim. 5.17 both of maintenance and countenance especially those that labour in the Word and Doctrine These are sufficient others perhaps may offer themselves in the processe of the point Quest But wherein may some say stands this love of the people to the Minister I answer in many offices I will mention two or three of the chiefe First in the justifying honouring and esteeming of the Minister For if that be once prejudiced in their hearts farewell all hope of successe upon his labours Ob. But the Minister himselfe must looke to that Answ Answ 3. Things 1. Honour I grant it in part viz. That no man is bound to magnifie him who dishonours himselfe by his sloth scandalous life tongue and manners and yet even of such I must say that to delight to deprave such or scorne them whom rather we should mourne to behold is sinfull And as for the infirmities of the wel-deserving we should cover them and carry a mantle backward that we may not see their nakednesse But I say there is oftentimes great desert of honour in the Minister which yet he cannot come by Therefore it s the duty of the people perpetually to seeke the credit and promote the esteeme of such For under Christ the Minister is that wisdome 1 Thes ult which all the children thereof must justifie Matth. 11.19 If he count them his honour and crowne what should they count him save their mutuall honour and best garland How should they beare up his name as the Lions of Salomon upheld his throne vindicating his person against all scorners cavillers upbraiders Not to be ashamed of him before any whether equalls betters or inferiours yea the whole congregation should backe him and strengthen his hands against all opposites that hee may without suspition or feare goe on in his course as wee read of the people to Joshua Cap. 1. Secondly 2. Sealing to their Ministry 2. Cor. it stands in the peoples sealing of his Ministry and labours in their owne soules and conversation That they may be an Epistle written in their hearts for the commendation of him without any other letters testimoniall and that the impression of his paines may bee seen upon them which is the reallest honour of a Minister in the world unto which is consequent the honour of their adherence Adherence and communion with him as the chiefe member thereof that he may be made privy to their profitings or decayings in understanding and grace that hee may mourne with them in their sorrowes and rejoice in their comforts as a tender father guardian and nurse that he may resolve their doubts ease their griefes and be all in all to them that no man may better know them then himselfe and they him and his voice as their Shepherd without estrangement or shinesse The third is their serviceablenes 3. Serviceablenesse Joh. 19.25 to him That they count themselves to stand charged with him as our Saviour charged Iohn with his mother To be provident for his supply and support by all meet preventing of affronts and offences at home abroad by procuring assistance favour and protection by their best endeavours travell friends counsell and mediation as acknowledging him to be theirs As once a Physitian bad his Minister looke to his soule and he should not want one that would looke to his body The like should each man Lawyer Justice Gentleman or meaner do within the compasse of their places Each one should have one shred of him or other Lastly allowance of a faire and comfortable competency of meanes 4. Maintenance to prevent carking or shifting courses or whatsoever might disable or dismay him in his Ministery or divert him from attendance to reading that so he may the more freely devote himselfe to his worke And this must not onely last while he is in the yoke and occupied but also if hee shall by any infirmity disease age decay become lesse fit for his service then formerly especially if wrong and opposition of enemies cause it that yet they take it in good part not adding sorrow to sorrow but sticking to him in his distresse So much for the Answer of this Question Vses Ministers must not be distrustfull of providencâ— I proceed to the Uses of it And here first let this point be solemne Admonition Information and Instruction to the Minister of God Admonition first to beware lest through distrust and infidelity he suffer his spirit to consult with flesh and bloud for the matter of his encouragement and support in his Ministry Hath the Lord had such respect unto him as to charge his people solemnly with the sustenance and maintenance of such his faithfull Ministers as serve at his Altar Hath he engaged himselfe by promise to them to be their exceeding great reward and not to suffer them to want Hath hee betrusted his Church with their welfare that as they would looke for mercy and blessing from him so they honour and uphold the person state life and liberties of his servants the Ministers Oh! take this kindly at Gods hand trust him to make good his promise he who hath the hearts and affections the estates and purses of all at his controll and command he is able to encourage us and sustaine us in our painfull conscionable discharge of the taske imposed upon us to feed his lambs and his sheep to waâ—ch over them to goe before them in an holy example Let us not shrinke from this worke nor shrug at the difficulty of it through feare opposition of men malice of enemies bad examples of those who favour their owne ease belly
others to take warning by See and tremble at the examples of Ahabs ruine upon contempt of Micaja Those Jewes in Egypt for despising of Ieremy 1 King 22.32 Jer. 44. the whole Nation of them both then and after for rejecting the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and rather make use of such to prevent destruction Briefly peruse these Texts Jer 26.18 Josh 22.17 c. A second branch of Terror may reach to such 2. Branch as will first qualifie their Minister in his charges counsells and then they will obey him but not till then It is irkesome unto them to obey him in the Lord in matters of conscience For why Their hearts are licentious carnall and prophane There be other Ministers which will do the like to their people till they have made them like to themselves And yet they thinke it a disgrace to live otherwise then lovingly and curteously with their Minister What course then take they Surely this they will first try whether they can by policy by kind offices feasting and entertaining of him pull him into their company and draw him into the fellowship of their pleasures games and merriments These they thinke will be least suspected and having snared him by these then they seeke by degrees to fetch him into the Ale-house People that will seem to love their Minister that they may luâ—ke in their sins odious to drinke and be a good fellow Then they inject a suspition and jealousie into his minde against such as feare God and oppose them in their base evills Then to whet his tongue in the pulpit against them to flesh and encourage themselves in their liberties and lusts And so by these meanes having baned him and made him for their turne they will obey him good reason For they have first made him sure enough and for their tooth they have taught him to be a meet Cooke for their appetite and to dresse their meat their owne way with the sawce that likes them best therefore they may well venture to eat of it Oh base creatures Doe ye first crooke the rule by which you are to write and doe ye then write after it Thus it was with him 1 King 21. who being sent for Micaja to Ahab would needs teach him his lesson by the way Let I pray thee thy words be sutable to the words of the foure hundred Prophets and then my Master will surely doe as thou biddest him Doe thou flatter and claw him and then he will obey thee So doe many to their Ministers Note They will prescribe him what truths hee shall teach them and what he shall balke they will tell him what method he shall use be much in discourse and little in application preach smooth and pleasing things and then they will heare him But oh wofull people Is this to heare him or to obey your lusts When Iehoiada was dead the Text tells us that his Princes came to Ioash 2 Chron. 24.17 and finding him a facile and flexible man they ingratiated themselves with him by gifts and rewards by praises and flatteries till they had drawne his spirit away from God to Idolls and to serve their own base turne Oh say they We are all thy loyall subjects and friends willing to be thy servants But we see that except thou hearken in the point of Religion to thy people they will scarce continue in their loyall obedience Wherefore it is much for thy safety and honour to yeeld to them and else it will create much trouble in thy Kingdome And even thus fares it with people of this ranke towards their Minister For the love of their lusts what will they not doe Oh Sir say they we see you are a man of worth and learning and you make us good Sermons we should be glad to live and love together and we hope you will be faire and curteous to us We love to keepe our Church and live honestly Indeed we are shy of them that are so zealous and precise in their preachings as to scare their good people we would be loath the hearts of your Parish should be alienated from you which we see will be if you be against our liberties pleasures and good fellowships Hitherto we have lived well and like kinde neighbours and we hope you will further rather then hinder it and so doing we shall live in peace and good will with you Oh how such smooth persons fret like a canker How easily doe they prevaile with such as are not armed with prevention Alas they are taken and snared by such baites and that little sparkle of good which seemed to be in them is soone quenched But to finish this Use beware O Minister of God lest thou be deceived with such cunning of men and as for them that do so entice them that they might the more securely live in their lusts Woe be unto them they may seeme to make a league with hell to provide a safety and immunity to their lusts But the Lord will breake their league and put a spirit of division betweene them so that they shall be as bitter enemies as ever they were friends and all because their union was cursed and tyed by the band of their lusts As Sampsons Foxes were tyed by their tailes with firebrands to doe mischiefe but not with the band of grace and love which would have held for continuance So much for this point of Terror Now a second Use may be Reproofe of sundry sorts And first Vse 2 of all such hearers as professe to love the Minister of God Reproofe 1. Branch Lovers of the Minister in generall yet conâ—ealing their doubts and cases from them reproved and comply with him in generall but still hold off aloofe in point of counsell and advice concerning their particular actions Doubts they have many touching their estates to Godward also many difficulties they meete with in their course in matters of weight but they will never acquaint their Minister with any of them he shall bee one of the first of them that shall bee last acquainted wiâ—h them Partly through folly strangenesse and darkenesse of their spirit partly through base feare lest their wants should be discovered and especially because in truth they are not willing to bee eâ—sed thereof but still to stagger and are resolved to consult with flesh and bloud rather then to be ruled by knowledge Such as these the Minister shall never heare of till sorrow and repentance compell them to utter their folly when they see they have overshot themselves in their bargaines or marriages till conscience beginne to sting them for their unjust and unwarranted courses or God crosse them with losses shame enemies then too late they come for counsell which if they had sought for in season all this had beene prevented Others when they have taken their owne course and bound sure 2. Branch such as first vow and then enquire doe badly then for fashion they will
their owne soules and therefore must be renounced But to proceed Exhortation Obedience to the Minister urged This point in the third place affords exhortation to Vse 3 all who desire to approve their love to the Minister of God that they do as entirely obey his voice in all things that God by him convinces them of as they would be loth to forfeit the repute of their love It s almost counted as treason now to strive with the Priest he is thought halfe a Publican who lives in any contest with the Minister or is ill affected to him and yet he or she are as rare to be found almost as black swans who obey their Minister for Gods cause Therefore as we would love him or God rather in him so be we sure we obey him Wherein you will say I answer since the holy Ghost hath traced out the way himselfe I will insist in his owne steps Esay 50.10.11 2 Cor. 5.20 6.1 One solemne proofe of obeying the voice of the Minister is to beleeve Gods promise Receive not the grace of God in vaine Be reconciled to God Who is among you saith Esay that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkenesse and hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay himselfe upon his God Let him not compasse himselfe about with sparkes nor walke in the light of his own fire which he hath kindled Marke This is a sound triall of obeying the Minister Some Instances of the obedience of love if we shall deny our owne wills and carnall reason reject all our false colours and exceptions and embrace the promise of the Gospel to beleeve and be saved This is the weightest charge that God hath given him to urge and it is the greatest seal which we can set to his Ministery if we beleeve it In this one obedience we lay the foundation of obeying all the rest It s like Naamans obeying Elisha to wash and be cleane if Naaman had obeyed twenty other charges besides what had it booted him But in this he obeyed all Doe not then sullenly abide in thy darkenesse and unbeleefe still because thou art darke but the rather abhorre that rebellious proud heart of thine which would keep thee in bondage or staggering and come to Gods promise his light and heat and that shall comfort thee quicken thee humble and enlarge thee As Naamans heart grew enlarged to God and the Prophet by his obeying that one charge so that he thought nothing too deare for them so shall thine It will make thee free to obey not as he being crossed to goe away sorrowfull but to lye downe at his feet saying Speake Lord for thy servant heareth So also be exhorted not to rest here but proceed to other obedience Doth he desire thee to seal to his Ministery by living amiably and subjectly in thy marriage husband and wife each to other Doth hee charge thee to acquaint thy selfe with God in secret To set up his worship in thy family To keepe bounds in the use of thy lawfull liberties and not to take thy uttermost To fellow-feele the miseries of the distressed To serve God in thy time Mourne for the abominations of all states and the miseries which they have justly procured Oh then obey him Hee hath warrant to enjoine thee this taske hee himselfe obeyes with thee and suffers as thou dost Wilt thou leave him as an owle in the wildernesse and not beare him company So againe put case that he entreats thee from God to lay aside thy peevishnesse thy wrath thy worldlinesse Doth he tell thee they are the ey-sores of his Ministery It vexes his righteous heart to behold them It joyes him to see them subdued in thee Oh comfort him in renouncing them 2 Cor. 6.11.12.13 Thou knowest how to sting him and how to cheere his heart His honour and content rests in thy hand it is in thee to sadden or to solace him Be not so cruell as to destroy thine owne chiefe prop under God If he shall say O deare friend as you love me obey me in reforming and purging your family and children of their abuses their running out to drunken companies and unseasonable meetings their garish attires and proud fashions I tell you its your and my dishonour that in other things you seeme Religious but in these as loose as others Perhaps ye will not openly set up Mâ—y-poles and Morris-dauncings to fret me but you will suffer your servants to breake the Sabbath which your selves would seem to keep What shall we thinke of this Surely to say no more you shall give mee leave to know my friends from my foes in these your doings How can you say you love me Judg. 15.16 when your heart is not with me Urging of the Exhortation Brethren shew what kindnesse you please in other regards to your Minister pay him his dues send him what gratuities you will but know if he be a Minister of Christ the maine scope of his heart and pitch of his ambition is to sit neer your hearts in the power of his commands and Ministery Tokens of our love to the Minister in other kinds are no markes of sound love except obedience follow all other things are but the killing him with kindnesse and breaking of his head to give him a plaister if you obey not from the heart love is alway content to be taught and to obey not to teach or prescribe be content then to love him as he from God shall appoint thee and not as thou thy self wouldest and put case thou shouldest perswade thy Minister thou lovest him by some other marks it were his folly to thinke so but it is neverthelesse thy sinne When thy Minister comes first to thee he findes thee a man of a double heart to God he strives to draw thee to sincerity and plainnesse he findes thee very ignorant and seekes to breed knowledge of God and thy selfe in thee he findes thee a man of an inconstant frame and not to be trusted or proud ambitious and vaine-glorious or perhaps contentious covetous stout wilfull and rebellious and labours to change thee thou saist thou lovest him Jerem. Doth his love then prevaile with thee to reforme these vices or art thou still the same man so that he may hope as soon to alter the skin of a Black-more as to alter them Then I say thou liest for thou lovest him not As that young man comming to Christ told him many things that he did and had done from his youth But our Saviour answers him yet one thing remaines Sell all and all is well so say I to thee in thy paying of tithes in thy friendly assistance and countenance thou dost well but one thing still remaines obey him and then it will appeare that the other are not done to blanch and daub over thine hypocrisie but from an heart of love and obedience I have
Nextly here is Terror and Reproofe for all that live under convincing Terror to all proud despisers of sincere Counsell sincere and faithfull counsell yea such as they cannot except against to proceed from unfaigned desire of their salvation conversion and repentance and yet still live in a stout and wilfull obstinacy and resolution to abide in their lusts and liberties without controll This is sure while men can pretend any sinister end in the Minister they thinke themselves to have buckler enough to beare off all blowes But even to you this I say that it shall not serve your turne to cast this blame upon your Minister for the power of the word ought more to convince you and scare you from your base courses then the Ministers insincerity to excuse you But when all this your plea is gone and cut off and you cannot deny but the evidence of the word goeth with the evidence of sincerity and you cannot for your eares deny but that your soules and selves have beene sought with the denying of our owne health gaine nay that you have had some Ministers who have robb'd themselves to teach you denyed many succours for your sake and been at their owne cost to study and preach unto you and yet the day is to come that one of many of you are wonne from your blindenesse Atheisme infidelity hollownesse pride worldlinesse or the like Oh what answer shall you make to the Lord when hee shall load you with this accusation Saul himselfe in a pang relented at Davids simplicity of heart in cutting off the lap when he might have cut his throat 1 Sam. 24.4 but such confession was yet never extorted from some of you I will not make all alike in this kinde God forbid But I wish all to looke about them Some are so cursed as those hearers of Christ who when he by the finger of God cast out Divells Matth. 12.31.32 yet enraged their hearts even against the very Spirit it selfe by which he wrought and preacht in an high degree whom he pronounced unpardonable It were enough to sin against any one doctrine promise or threat or command of the Spirit as thousands doe daily and many of you before me have done Speak before the Lord and answer for your selves what one sound reproofe what truth of Gods Spirit either of Law or Gospel hath pierced many here for their dead hearing tyring out the hearts of Gods Ministers for their drunkennesse uncleannesse base tongues lying and the like But some there are who have set themselves against the Spirit it selfe of truth and sincerity in the Preacher Witnesse this That the more faithfull he is the more they have raged against him and rebelled nay some have studied how to make the sincerity of the Preacher his snare entrapping him in those speeches wherein perhaps not with so much caution yet with as great sincerity as is possible for sinfull flesh he hath expressed himselfe for their good And if not so yet they wilfully have slept and lived in security under it As Nicodemus told Christ Joh. 3.2 that the Pharisees his fellowes knew him to be from God in their conscience but yet smothered their light Oh fearfull sinne How dare any of you provoke the wrath of God thus to smoke against you I remember that example of them who came to Christ and practised this treachery Matth. 16.22 Mark 11.31 Master say they we know thee to be from God and teachest the word sincerely not caring for the person of any Tell us then Is it lawfull to give tribute to Cesar or no As if they should say Thou preachest sincerely therefore wee come to cut thy throat with thine owne words Worse then Herod in this kinde who murthered Iohn halfe against his will Matth. 14.2 and afterward feared that he was risen and could have no peace because he had slaine so sincere a witnesse of God but these would shed the bloud of such and no whit blanke but thinke they doe God good service But say that all are not so vile Joh. 16.2 yet how many of us are there who being guilty in our owne conscience of our sinnes and of the sincerity of the reprover yet hold their owne and will not come in will not discerne a gift of God above any thing which man can reach unto but resist it Partly by their slightnesse partly that they are so full of their owne matters contentions with others covetous courses politicke principles and self-delusions with pride of heart stoutnesse and disdaine techinesse and reliques of some old bitter roote which is bred in the bone or such like evills and the love of them will not be drawne by any sincerity of the Minister to forsake these wayes which long custome hath hardned them in but rather become more pathed in their sinnes by much beâ—ting upon To whom I say will you never bethinke you Will it not be bitternesse in the end What will you deferre all till death And then as others have done cry out for the Minister and empty out your whole heart The misery of contemners and say Oh Sir I knew of a long time that you spoke unto me from God but what for one cause and what for another I contemned the love and compassion wherewith you spake dallyed with God and sinned against my owne soule and that tender honesty of your reproofes and admonitions Oh you have been patient long and borne with my frowardnesse Prov. 1.26 But now if I live I hope I shal see your affection honour your Ministery humble my selfe under your terrors beleeve the promises reforme my wayes Oh doe you delay till now But who can tell whether God will not leave you at such a time to the former hardnesse of your heart Or if not yet whether your humiliation will prove sincere or false as being on the racke Whether God will take you away in your dallyings or no ere that day It is not safe venturing But most wise and safe to yeeld to the sincerity of good counsell while it is given ere it be too late This know that wheresoever God hath a sincere Minister he shall never goe without honour although it be in the destruction and finall conviction of the gainsayers Take heed you be none of them whom this guilt ceazes upon Vse 6 Sixtly this is Instruction and that in two kindes The former this To judge by this rule 1. Brâ—nch Instâ—uction Gods counsells are most sincere Rom. 15.3 Rom. 5.7 what great reason God hath to presse us to obey all his offers counsels exhortations promises To be sure although we should say all men are lyars and seeke themselves yet the Lord is sincere faithfull he cannot seeke his owne ends to our hurt Hee cannot bee benefited by us his are the sheep upon a thousand mountaines Psal 50.10 he needs not our wealth but goodnesse reaches not to him Psal 16.2 Who hath given to him first
of difficulty to obey he is much more ready to obey in easier and lesser because else he should justly question his sincerity in the greater The same generall tye lying upon the soule in both great and small the soule dares not offend in the small lest it should seeme to obey the greater for some ends of it owne to avoid the shame which the neglect of the greater might rather cause then the violation of the smaller Reason 3 Thirdly faithfulnesse in the greater takes away that barre of falshood which might hinder the performance of the smaller Perhaps a false heart might possibly buckle to a greater worke of Piety or Charity then to a smaller because it sees more carnall content accruing to it selfe by the greater then by the smaller But a sincere heart that abhorres falshood is carried by another instinct and cares not so much what men thinke as what God thinkes remembring that speech Not he who men praiseth is a true Jew or Christian but whom God praiseth The argument in sundry respects prevailes with a Christian from the lesser to the greater Rom. 2. ult as well from the greater to the lesser When great duties lye upon him to be done he argues thus Shall I make conscience of smaller secreter offences and shall I not much more abhor the grosser Doe I provide for my owne peace in the smaller so that the least gnat makes me straine and doe I not make much more conscience of greater which would more waste and weaken my peace So in good things Doe I make conscience of smaller duties as to give an almes to rule my tongue or a passion wherein God is lesser honoured and doe I not much more regard the maine duties of faith and the purging of my heart and inner man from hypocrisie in which I should honour him much more Again when the question is of lesser sinnes avoiding or duties doing then it disputes another way Have I found the yoke of God light unto me in those things which I feared my base heart would never be drawne too because of their difficulty and danger and shall I draw backe in smaller wherein no such hurt or hardnesse is to be feared Surely this were to requite God evill for good and to bewray my lewdnesse that I seeke starting holes and excuses to shake off the yoke when I see the least crevis of liberty to the flesh afforded so that I will serve God no more then needs must and would shift my hands of the greatest much more if the necessity thereof and the expectation of others did not compell me So then the point is cleer He that is faithfull in a greater will be so much more in the lesser Howbeit the point must be understood aright Explanation of the point and according to the naturall meaning and intent of it we must therefore qualifie Greatnesse and Smalnesse in their due measure or else the point will not hold First we must qualifie men aright in their opinion for to some men that may seem greatest which to another is smallest and another may judge that least which another thinks greatest When that young man came to our Saviour and told him He had kept all the Commands from his youth our Saviour answered him Goe sell all The scope of Christ was to confute his presumption in keeping all by laying open his inability to keepe one and that lesser then any of the morall ones For to obey one command in the manner and due measure thereof is that which never yet flesh could do But to sell all hath beene done by many who never obeyed one command of the morall Law in his extent and fulnesse Now yet marke this young man tooke it otherwise for hee thought to sell all to be harder then all the other in which respect our Saviour searcht him to the quicke but in the thing it selfe it was not so Againe in this case circumstances prove essentialls sometimes as of time for at some time a man may be fit for a greater who at another is not fit for a smaller As to give ten pound at his death for religious uses who perhaps while hee lived could not so well spare tenne shillings Also the preparation of the heart must be considered In the generall David may be thought to be readier to pardon Mephibosheth then Shemei the one failing by error the other substantially but he was armed in the case of the one but naked in the other Besides he beheld Shemei under a true colour as set on by God to try him but the other in a false as suspecting that a favorite should be treacherous which was nothing so So a generall custome of corrupt nature may fasten greater degree upon a lesser thing and a lesser upon a greater Act. 14. Those people of Lycaonia might have thought it a greater humility for men to abase themselves to men then to God But Idolatry and corrupt custome caused even their proud hearts to proffer worship to Paul and Barnabas as agreeing with a fleshly heart rather then God himself whom when they were urged to worship they tooke up stones to kill the Apostles And endlesse it were to shew the variety of respects wherein this rule may faile But this I say if the true natures of things and the judgements of men about them be reconciled taking things in their due extent without error then the point alway holds true He that is faithfull in the greater is so much more in the smaller For why A Christian is acted by such a spirit as teaches him to doe all things with sincerity equality and proportion both great and small one and another lest if any flaw appeare it should breed a disproportion in the eye of God or of man and cause an ey-sore to both As when wee see a comely face joyned to a crooked body or a deformed and crooked back and shoulders to a good countenance presently there appeares an indignation in us at the eye-sore Vse 1 The first Use is for Instruction It informes us of the reason why many men who seem forward in some greater acts of religion especially for the bulke thereof yet faile most grossely in the smaller Iâ—struction It s a shrewd marke of unfaiâ—hfulnesse to be forward in great duties and backward in small Surely it is an argument of great unfaithfulnesse and impurity of spirit For if there were soundnesse there would bee much more forwardnesse in lesser then in greater as being joyned with lesse damage and difficulty But when the heart is impure there is no sure rule in a man to keep him in he may bee franke in greater acts and very defective in smaller What was the cause that moved our Saviour to magnifie the woman that cast in two farthings into the treasury above them that cast in handfulls of silver Mark 12.43 Not for the summe but the different spirit of both She cast in out of devotion and would have
Publicans and vilest ones unprofitable servants whereas their building within rises up to a greater height of self-confidence by their outward castings downe for they thinke that not onely they may merit for themselves but for others and more then fulfill the Law and so by equalling themselves to Christ they overthrow the sole soveraignty of his satisfaction and merit But O ye â—opish mortifiers of the flesh adde one thing more get the power of the word into you to divide betweene the bones and the marrow Heb. 4.12 to goe betweene your hearts and your corruption and to cast downe those high things of yours those imaginations which set up themselves against the simplicity of Christ and then so farre as the word warrants us wee will joyne with you in outward fruits wherein though many of us faile more then you yet this makes your Doctrine never the sounder nor justifies your defect in the great matter of Sincerity and Faithfulnesse Wofull hypocrites who straine out a gnat but swallow a Camel dare not eat an egge in Lent but dare kill your Prince And although wee will not wholly condemne all those patternes of humility whom you boast of for certainly many of your first Monks and Votaries were honester then your selves yet we know that their devotion had much wil-worship in it which cannot warrant yours much lesse can yours stand which hath neither honesty within nor warrant of the word without to maintaine it So much for this also Vse 3 Thirdly this serves to instruct us how to esteem of Gods administrations and dealings and how to dispute with our own soules in the case of our distrust and infidelity I remember the argument by which Elisha perswades that Iehoram and his company 2 King 3. to beleeve that God will give them water in that perill of drought This is a small thing saith he for the Lord to doe for you For why He will also deliver the Moabites into your hands a farre greater thing Sutable to which was that which the Lord would convince Ahaz of by Isaiah Esay 7. viz. the victory he should have of the Aramites Is it a small thing saith he for you to weary the Lord and to distrust his power Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son and shall call his name Emanuel which is a greater thing then to give you victory To apply this Let us learne hence to summe up the mercies of God vouchsafed us already and let us weigh them in due ballance If wee have seene him feed seven thousand with a few loaves Gods faithfulnesse to us in the maine must make us trust him in the smaller things doe we distrust him to feed twelve Disciples Do we finde that he hath bestowed upon us the maine let us beware of distrusting him in the lesser For he holds this rule much more surely then we We will trust a friend that hath lent us an hundred pound for the lending us twenty shillings and shall we distrust God He that hath made our bodies and breathed in our soules will he deny us food and raiment Is not the belly better then meat and the body then cloathing Whence is then this our distrust If he hath given us his Sonne Matth. 6.25 will he not with him much more give us other things lesser matters If he have made us a feast in the mountaines will he not much more give us ordinary food in the valleyes Had it not beene a base distrust in them that came into Canaan to thinke that God might suffer them to starve in the midst of a land flowing with milke and hony having before by a miracle nourished them with manna quales and the following rocke of water in the desert Doth the Lord urge us sinfull wretches by a Law which himselfe will not observe If we be faithfull in the greater treasure will he trust us in the lesser and will not we trust him Let us boldly urge the argument upon him by faith and we shall prevaile Rom. 8.32 he himselfe hath put it into our mouth If it become weake Read a speciall place in Math. 16.8.9 it s because we have made it so by our unbeleefe and let it fall to the earth We deceive our selves in the fundamentall promise and then accuse him that he keeps not touch with us in the lesser But if we would deale substantially in matters of weight we should finde that other lesser things would follow our hand with ease and the great ship of the main promise would carry all our smaller vessells of our secondary supplies after it without our rowing or strife But oh how basely doe we deale herein with God and our selves We dare beleeve that God will save our soules but whether he will keep us from poverty or no or bring us out of debt or enable us to maintaine our charge we cannot tell we have not so cleer a word for that we say as for the other Nay rather we yeeld more to sense and carnall reason in this then in the other or else make our selves thinke we beleeve the former better then indeed we doe Alas if the greatest were beleeved it were easie to cast anchor upon the other If the mountaine be given us shall a molehill be denied us No but we are pinched more with unbeleefe in the lesser then the greater if we had the like pinch of heart about the chiefe point of favour and pardon would it not thinke we dash the other and make it nothing Save my soule Lord and for my body doe thou as thou wilt for thou canst not doe amisse thou art tyed by thy promise to the lesser How comes it to passe then that those who have tasted how sweet the Lord hath beene in easing us of a burthen which wee never lookt to be rid of that we distrust him for faith in petty cases As for the easing us of such a strait aiding us in such a crosse of bad wife subtill enemy helping us in the losse of a good Ministery or in the encumbrance of a bad unprofitable people or ill and unsavoury Minister or strengthning us against such a lust or enlarging in us such a grace or granting us such friends in our distresse of body or blessing in our trade or training up of children or saving us and them from the customes of this present evill world or giving us our daily bread Oh thou of little faith what wilt thou be heathenish Shall the Lord cloath the grasse and deck the lillies which labour not nor spinne and shall he leave thee naked Not if thou labour and spinne out the promise in speciall Other of Gods people have done so Habac. 3. 1 Sam. 17. Habacuc would not distrust God though no bullocke were in the stall no calfe or sheep in the fold David will not distrust God touching the Philistin having killed both Lion and Beare and concludes 1 Chron. 16. that God will not
desolate and desperate which is the estate of hypocrites and selfe-deceivers Esay 50. ult and so God should put no difference between a poor humbled soul mourning for him and one that compasses himselfe with his own sparkles All these being of infinite absurdity and ill consequcnce it must needs bee that God will not bee angry nor contend for ever but finde a time an accepted season in which he will ease the heavy heart of her distempers and set her at liberty Thirdly the Lord hath the spirit of man and the passages and waies Reason 3 thereof in his owne hand to sway draw alter turn it as he pleases He formed the spirit first of his owne breath knows how it defiled it self understands the wofull inability of it to heale it selfe sees and beholds the secret windings and turnings of it how it wraps it selfe into endlesse errors and wearisome doubtings he permits all these in wisdome and when he sees his fittest time he can turne the course and streame of the spirit his owne way though the rebellion crossenesse feares and staggerings thereof be never so perplexed There is an absolute soveraignty of God over the will and conscience of man that when hee please he can do with it as men do with rivers of waters Proverb which though naturally they runne downeward yet by art and skill are recalled and derived to such uses as best serve to the benefit of the owners so that the question is not whether the heart would of it selfe encline but whether God enclines it Fourthly the power of the Spirit is such that it blowes at it owne Reason 4 pleasure and is of a most perfect freedome to blow where when how farre it selfe will and is not in the power of any Divell enemy man himselfe to crosse it God hath the winde of perswasion in his owne hand and he holds the winde in his fist All perswasions arguments and motives doe so farre prevaile or not prevaile with the spirit of man as the Spirit it selfe pleases to set them on When he will overrule the Spirit a little motive a word speaking shall effect it when he will stop the power of it nothing shall prevaile Luke 5.3.7 As Peters nets lay by when the season was so when the time of catching came all the fish came together and were enclosed under it So the counsells of the best wisest strongest must lye by as ineffectuall when God is absent the heart lies as a stone frozen into ice no axes mattocks strife of man shall break it But when his heart is enclining to man and meanes him good then shall the Spirit lye in another coast and suddenly thaw and melt the ice of the soule and dissolve those strong chaines which bound it before and made it past mans skill to pierce it so that as before nothing could soften it so now nothing shall harden it Now then marke If this power be in the Spirit of grace it must needs serve for somewhat it is not needlesse Therefore it must serve to this end to rid captives of their chaines to speake a word in season to a soule that is weary to carry the seed of life and the promise into the poore and fatherlesse spirit and there to enter open and enlarge the soule so farre that as it had no power to apply to receive or embrace any light or hope now it may be as the eternall gate opened by the eternall Spirit who hath the key of David and have no power to shut it selfe any more nor to resist the Spirits power and perswasion Reason 5 The fifth Reason is taken from the scope which mercy propounds to herselfe in the turning the soule to God Even the glory of it own selfe and that nothing may share with it selfe in this great worke of over-powring the soule As she onely hath those weights in her hand which can over weigh the base and backward heart so she will doe it when the soule hath struggled and tyred her selfe in her owne way hoping by her owne skill to effect it Then can mercy onely save the soule and remove the false principle which she found in the soule to crosse it even when the soule seemed to be most earnest in seeking it The Lord seeks more to honour himselfe above the soule then to shew it mercy onely for the private good thereof and when he findes that the soule herselfe can make no work of it is past hope in herselfe sees most basenesse in herselfe then is his fittest season to worke for his owne name and then none shall share with him in that point whereof he is so jealous that is his glory Esay 63.4 Esay 42.5 There is a speciall text of worth for this point which I wish all to observe Esay 57.17 I was angry with him and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart But I have seene his wayes and will heale him and restore comfort and create peace What While he goes on in his frowardnesse kicks against the pricks and hath no disposition in him to convert Surely no for all the work of Selfe is but the frowardnesse of a man with himself because he cannot have his will of God But then will God heale that man may be set on ground and bee convinced of his owne impotency for no reason can be given why at last the Lord should so overrule him save meer mercy to one in misery except any will say that a froward heart can merit any mercy So then the entire glory of the grace of mercy causes the Lord at last to finish the worke hee hath begunne that both the Alpha and Omega may be his both warpe and woofe from him Thus much for Reasons Now I proceed to some Questions Three Questions For upon that I have said sundry may be made Especially these three First wherein doth appeare that a soule in the way of grace and under the condition of it may yet a long time lie under such distempers ere it come to apply the promise this may arise from the present case of Naaman of whom the Doctrine saith that the Lord now found a time of grace for him though it were long first some therefore may desire to see it proved that it may be long first wondring that it befalls not the soule as soone as shee is under the condition of it The second question may bee why the Lord should permit such delayes and longsome staggering since that it may seeme it were better if it were speedy and put out of doubt at first Thirdly it is asked by what markes it may appeare to a poore soule that the Lord intends to finish his worke and to set her out of her old feares and distempers To answer the first of these this I say experience proves it that conversion is not finisht in many a soule which yet may be under a condition Quest 1 of it as soone as begunne Why conversion is not
pride earthly hearts abides in them and annoyes them they cannot thinke the promise concernes them Oh! if they could finde themselves rid of these they should have hope else none Others cast their thoughts afarre off and thinke that faith carries with it the implied condition of such a change for time to come as they shall never attaine too For say these beleevers must be holy and cleane whereas we carry such base lusts about us hearts so hardned with sins that we cannot repent it were death to us to forgoe some beloved evills or to keep within a compasse of an holy course for any time As good tye a Tygre to a rope and make him to plow the furrowes as their wilde hearts to any duty and good behaviour And when they are told that faith will purge their hearts and they must not forestall God then they say though they should repent yet they should never persevere Before they dye the Divell who owes them a mischiefe will surely pay it them one temptation or other will foile and betray them so that ere they die they shal revolt most fouly and fall away like Demas Hymeneus and so goe to their grave with misery without returning to God and besides bring such a staine upon the Gospel as will never bee worne out There are others discouraged by the long space of time since they came to see themselves under the condition of grace as to be lost broken c. and yet they come not to any sound settling upon the promise if God they say meant to save them at all he would have saved them long ere now for they were once farre more tender then now they are they were at first onely guilty of sinnes against the Law but now they have added sinnes against the Gospel also as it were drunkennesse to thirst yea they are hardned sapped and past feeling And moreover they see many others who beganne farre later then they yet are got before them as in other gifts and graces so in faith and insight into the mystery of Christ in which they grow not but notwithstanding all meanes abide so silly so simple so ignorant and uncapable that there is little or no probability of being better They feele little difference neither they say in their course but alway in darkenesse sad feares going on and on but gaining no ground nor growing more toward the hope of beleeving and therefore they conclude that they belong not to Gods number they are not surely chosen of God and therefore they may will and runne long enough but they shall not finde mercy And so long as this bone sticks in the throat how should any savour of the promise goe downe their stomacks or enter into their hearts Another sort by these and the like distempers wax sullen and transported with melancholy and mopishnesse and grow therein so obstinate and that they will heare no counsell they know they say what their destiny is therefore let no body trouble himselfe about them As it is and hath beene so it will be with them still They know as much as any Minister can teach them They will not bee brought so much as to consent that there is any better estate then they live in neither doe they thinke that any can have any more assurance then themselves if they see any Christians merier then themselves they presently judge them to be presumptuous hypocrites and condemne them Others do not so much censure others as themselves and grow conceited against the meanes will not be perswaded to heare or pray because they doe but encrease their damnation nay but for necessity of nature they would not eat their meat nor drinke when they are athirst nor goe to any nor suffer any to come at them neither aske nor take counsell for they say these things belong to them whose they are But they are none of Christs and therefore have no right unto them And yet even many of these setting aside the malice of Satan holding them under with this melancholy of body or conceit of minde or both have given good signes of a loaden broken and desirous heart To draw to an end the most sad hindrance of all is that the beauty of the promise the good things of God given to his are not seene into by them They have not yet met with the spirit of light and perswasion somewhat or other hath dazled it either their confidence that it shall be well with them or their neglect of meanes or their using them in a scanty slacke and formall manner or their subtilty closenesse slynesse loathnesse to part with their pleasures or some bitter roote of earthlinesse which dampes the esteeme of the Lord Jesus they cannot be gastered from the creature it is so naturall so rooted in them or some base thing or other they will nourish as sugar under the tongue and hope to reconcile it with Christ so that both may goe together loth they are that onely bare and naked Christ should beare sway and come into a naked house or else I say the true kindly and cleere beauty of that which the promise presenteth to a soule under a condition is by some meanes hidden from them as by error and misconceiving what faith is by giddinesse by forgetfulnesse by foolish intermedling with many things Luke 11. one thing being necessary by little meditation applying pondering and incorporating the word into their hearts by stumbling at the very point in hand thinking that seeing good onely can and in time will releeve the soule therefore let all goe cast all upon God and be lazy and secure But one more I will adde of most usuall error to many especially such as are ungrounded and that is in the putting no difference between Doctrines and Truths handled in the course of their hearing As it is a sad error of some men that so they preach it skills not what nor how They little attend the estates periods and degrees of their people so the people are like them so they heare the truth they little minde what truths doe most concerne them 2 Tim. 3.7 and so alway are hearing but never come to knowledge Why They are foolish and undiscerning All is fish which comes to the net and they embrace alike one and other whereas although all be good yet it concernes them to looke out such as might fit their needs and further them in the worke they aime at Tell a woman whose fruit is come to the birth of this tale and that aske her what linnen she hath or what meat she will eat doth she savour such questions Are they not tedious Doth she not aime at one thing that is how she may get strength to bring forth So should an hearer that seekes the fruit of his labour not while himselfe with every truth lesse concerning for the present but hearkning after such as may answer his doubts cleere his objections reveale that which he most wants and which
speakes most directly to his heart As for pleasing himselfe in being in the element of any truth whereof he sees no use it is irkesome to a wise heart although he reverence all And these may serve for a taste of many more lets which differ as men differ and for answer to the first question I come to the second Since it is thus what reason may be given to Quest 2 satisfie men in this way of good for many would thinke it better if God tooke a more short and speedy way But I answer Answ for many causes God permits it To summe them up breefly One is 1. Cause because the Lord herein lookes at some grosse sins which ruled and reigned in the former part of mens life and in youth which are as iron moles and will hardly be worne out of the flesh being bred in the bone save by tozing and searching the heart throughly Secondly that he might breed some restraint in youth and curbe them from such offences as after must cost a great deale of purging plowing and harrowing ere the soule will affoard good mould for the word For sure it is the more rebellion the Lord meets with the more irons he loades the soule with Esay 28. Thirdly that he might exercise each soule in finding out her owne speciall let and not goe to worke in a fulsome generalnesse Fourthly to breed in the soule a solemne and sad thought concerning the way of God and roote out that giddinesse and vanity which puffes up the soule in a vaine presumption and ease Fifthly to occupy the minde of the Minister in right and carefull dividing the word and studying to approve himselfe as a workeman not to be ashamed striving to be faithfull both in the gift of discerning spirits that he may speake to the purpose not at randon as also to be painfull in catechizing which containes the wise and leasurely way of God to scrue and dive into the hearts of men by degrees and to soke the heart in the principles of faith which they that want may be long enough in hearing Sermons ere they conceive the order of the mystery of faith and how the soul comes to claspe with the promise Sixtly the Lord hereby corrects those most wicked evills which have carried the soule in and under the Ministry of the Gospel especially the dallying with the seasons of grace 7. That by this mean the Lord might clense the heart from Selfe in every kinde and twitch up every roote and rinde of selfe-love which would dangerously mix it selfe with the promise Lastly that the Lord as I toucht before might prepare way for himselfe in the honour of the soul when it shall finde by experience that all her salvation is of him and he could bring it out of nothing nay worse then nothing when as the soule lay strugling with herselfe without hope or remedy So much for answer to the second question The third and last question is how the soule may finde by markes Quest 3 that the Lord is following on with the work of grace That so it may be comforted in this that she is no hypocrite and so shall not wanze and moulder away as wax before the Sunne but obtaine the fruit of the promise in Gods due time For answer whereto this I say it may bee knowne by the contrary to those markes which bewray hypocrites Answ Marke 1 The first shall be this A soule truly under the condition of grace is very vigilant stirring and observant of the seasons which affoord grace not only generally to hearken after the word but specially to observe the Angels moving of the water The Lord doth not alway stir alike The Minister is not moved nor the heart of the hearer affected alike It s rare when the Lord and the soule close throughly one with the other when the word is preacht so savourly and lively and carryes the vertue of the speaker with it into the hearer and when the hearer meets it with a discerning of a season from God But when the soule meets with such Oh it abhors to dally and trifle with God to greeve him with slightnesse either for the present or after But confesses it to be a rare occasion presses hard with the Lord for blessing and followes on as Gedeon did those enemies Judg. 7. while the sent was hot lest he should be defeated Thus doth a good heart watch her time alway being upon wing for her prey and loaths carelessenesse of the watchwords of God No sin stings her more then former dallyings with the Lord nothing brings her upon her knees in secret more then this sinne and the sad fruit of it nothing puts her in more feare lest God should forsake her and suffer his Spirit to give over all saving strife with her nothing more is desired then that the Lord would forget her many provokings this way and stir her up with threefold alacrity to redeeme such seasons for time to come Whereas an hypocrite sees not such mercy from God or else vanishes in the fruit of them le ts all goe and nouzles himselfe in a blinde hope all shall be well whiles yet old sinnes and dallyings are upon the score unrepented of and unforgiven and the soule hardning more and more and waxing daily more and more crazy and unfit to be wrought upon Marke 2 Secondly a thriving soule God and promise-ward above all things nourishes life in herselfe not onely in ordinances but in the course and way of conversation Where ever she become the Spirit of life leaves her not wholy but more or lesse accompanies her spirit to preserve it from deadnesse flatnesse remissenes and suffering the worke of God to lye by in her And howsoever she feels a very body of death in this kinde fighting against the law of life in her yet knowing which is the stronger she gives not place No although the more she strives to be lively and savoury upon the promise and by faith the more the death of corruption resists her and discourages her yet even in this darke belly of the whale she casts her eie towards the Temple Jonah 2.8 and dares not yeeld when yet she is almost foiled but discernes a base body of death from the desire of her owne heart and because she feeles a dying she judges herselfe not wholly dead but to have some life under the embers which she makes much of and nourishes as one would hatch up one coale of fire upon dry straw lest it should goe quite out Such a soule abhors a daily deadish and sad heart more then death it selfe labours to revive it selfe by all hot waters from swowning and dying rejoyces when she recovers exercises her selfe with others as well as in secret to whet up that dull and weake edge of life and faith which remaines and is glad to feele that it is not alway alike with her in this kinde Whereas an hypocrite who never attaind to this sweet life
is faine to shuffle as he is able to counterfeit life and zeale and when his endeavours succeed not he commits all to hazard and shifts off a dead heart as he can with head and shoulders Thirdly these persons may be knowne by this That they discerne Marke 3 of the distempers which formerly molested them Opposite to the ten former Objections and held them off from the promise as may appeare by these particulars opposite to the former objections named in the first question First they discover a mercy in their deep castings downe and feares and in the spirit of bondage which they feele they looke upon it not as a marke of wrath but as the entrance upon the way of God for their further humbling and making their heart tender acknowledging it could not be spared and looking into the promise for some hope of redresse Secondly they wisely consider that the condition of faith and the gift of faith it selfe differ much and therefore for them to rest in any such worke of preparation as will not stablish their hearts in peace through the bloud of the Covenant were a deceit of Satan causing them to lye by the way when they have a further journey to goe Affections and Ordinances they embrace but rest not therein as wanting a bottome of the satisfaction of Christ to Gods justice and therefore in that they onely dare pitch their rest renouncing whatsoever of their owne might satisfie them Thirdly they wisely cosinder what degrees they have atained in grace and dare not forget or deny what God hath already done for them confesse that thousands want that which they have yea that it s nothing but selfe-love which buries all former mercies under a clod of discontent for that which they want and with the lowest humblenesse acknowledge themselves the least of all others and that whatsoever is not hell is more then God owes them they count themselves not worth the ground they tread on submitting themselves unto God to doe with them as he pleases and willing to be as he will have them Fourthly they moderate their own judgements touching the matter of faith and desire to looke at it as that gift which God in wisdome useth for the saving of his neither on the one side making it lesse nor on the other side more high and solemne then God would have them for though it be too good for them to enjoy yet not for God to bestow whose gifts although very precious yet are most free and so they shake off that base slavery of heart which possessed them Fifthly they consider themselves not as they shall be when faith hath clensed them but as now they lye and are objects of mercy such as God purposes to declare the riches of grace upon in due time in the meane season they are the vilest of all sinners as also Paul and others were in their corrupt estate They consider that sinne causes mercy to abound so it bee not wilfully committed See Acts 2.34.35 And this is the honour of God to beteame it to enemies hypocrites proud uncleane prophane ones yea Christ died for sinnes against the Gospel an hard dead rebellious heart of unbeleefe as well as against the Law Therefore they see in that dunghill of drosse alway steaming out of them an occasion of mercy in God not of despaire save in themselves And if they were as they would be void of such corruption they should need no mercy they might plead merit Rom. 3.19 Christ came to save sinners and hath shut up all under disobedience that he might save some even the weakest unworthiest of all others for these will cun him most thank Pharisees need him not As for the dogging of their corruptions they consider Satan most clogs and dogs that soule which is most earnest to be rid of them whereas others are shut up in false peace and feare nothing Sixtly they grow to this resolution not to cast feares aforehand more then they ought Micah ult ult if God will pardon them they doubt not but he will afterward purge them subdue their corruptions for them and finish his worke with perseverance They were not fit judges to speake of time to come What hath he who wants faith to doe with the condition of him that hath it They will therefore attend one thing at once and not many If once they can obtaine faith in that they shall have the rest For why Faith will purge the conscience and set the beleever on worke to preserve in himselfe that which is already planted Therefore they see it were a great folly to hinder themselves of a present mercy through the distrust of a future Seventhly they repent them of those ungrounded cavills from the length of time the example of others and the feare of election and with a mourning heart for that hardnesse and unprofitablenesse of theirs they acknowledge it to be none of theirs but Gods priviledge to appoint the times and seasons of grace They ought not to forestall God in this kinde but wait his leasure They must not grudge at others but follow their example Others are not gone so fast before but mercy can send them after with as good speed And as for election it is not for them its Gods secret they know no such matter that they are reprobated but when they shall beleeve they shall know that they are elect Let therefore God alone with his secrets confesse his Soveraignty and tremble but apply themselves to the revealed way of God and behold his ladder and cords of mercy put downe unto them into the dungeon and clapse about them as they are commanded to do Eightly they look up to the promise and thereby shake off their melancholy sullennes of heart see the emptinesse the absurdity of their froward hearts which God doth as much detest as they admire They see a world of pride self and rebellion in it and therefore desire to send it to hell whence it came and to turn their censure of others into imitation of their grace Ninthly and especially whatsoever hath witheld them from the promise from beholding the excellency of it in the meaning of God in the bounty truth and fidelity constancy stablenes fulnesse sufficiency of the same they shake it off Jonah 2.8 they forsake other vanities conceits of their own their morall contents their busying themselves about many things whereby Satan as by his golden apple would keep them from the silver Bell and therefore now they resolve to lay all other sacrifices by the Altar till their reconciliation be made to which end they trade with the promise by meditation and use all meanes to dive into it and to looke into it as the Angels into the Mercyseat till their misery for want of it cause them to venture themselves and jeopard their salvation upon it Lastly they correct their loose and generall hearings of the word purposing to bend their minds as
pride and stoutnesse begins to quaile and his great stomack comes downe That heart which before was the heart of Leviathan as Iob describes it hard as a stone now melts and becomes soft as wax This is a signe indeed of mercy drawing neare a poore soule that even as before all turned to gall and bitternesse Job 41.24 and like bad physick wrought by contraries so now the Lord purposing to perfect his work with power lo all goes right and the omnipotent arme of God subduing and casting downe all high things that before caused the heart to swell and bluster against the way of God now molifies the hard heart and thaws it as the frost by the southwind Oh what a strange alteration doth the rising Sun cause in the horizon Fogs and mists and darkenesse vanish and disperse themselves and all the coast is cleare againe as if there had never beene any such And marke it who will thus it fares with every soule which comes to God the nearer it drawes to the Sun of righteousnesse the more melting and humble it is all old quarrells and cavills all old rebellion and stoutnesse of spirit are scattered when Christ once arises to rebuke the boisterous rage of the sea for such is every wicked heart Esay 57. ult even foaming and casting up mire and dirt then on the suddaine all waxes mild and calme and the place where frowardnesse and distempers grew is no more found Thus much for the third question I come to the Uses of the point which are many fold First it instructs Vse 1 us about a difference betweene the hypocrite and the sound hearted seeker after God Instruction 1. Branch Hypocrites elect ones differ in their issues Matth. 12. There may seeme no great oddes in their paines and endeavours both may seeme earnest and longsome both heare much pray and live in the element of meanes constantly both have their terrors their hopes their flashings of light and comfort both have their ebbings and flowings sorrowes and joyes but the one hath not the issue which the other hath The end of the one is to goe out in darkenesse the other to overcome and breake forth into victory The end of the righteous marke it Psal 37. is alway peace though after long toile and hazard The righteous are saved though scarce and with much ado and at last they come to the haven They are like to them in the ship wherein Paul sailed Act. 27. though they had so toilesome a travell of it all the winter yet God gave to Paul all the soules that were with him and bid him be of good comfort for all should safely come to land at last The truth is there is an ods between them from first to last in their knowledge in the work of the Law their terrors and of the Gospell their sorrow their desire and the rest But that is not so easie for us to discerne God only sees that But in the upshot it is manifest For then it appeares that there was a different principle that acted them the one from himselfe to himselfe the other from the Spirit of grace for the honour of grace and the change of the heart As Saint Nazianzen once spake of one of the Councells that neither it began with God neither would end for him Looke well about you brethren for God helpe us the worke of faith seems to be perfected in few of us to any purpose preaching in and out of season we have long had and all follow it but to behold the sad and dead point which many of us doe and long have stood at would flait any honest heart to think of one would thinke those former trialls should exercise every one of us to see what at last will come of all our struglings and strifes I pray God we prove not of the baser sort that enter not but faile of Gods grace though it be long first yet if at last our successe answer our pains it will be well An item to these persons But it s not amisse for some of us to suppose the hardest and say what if I should not be of them who shall end in comfort All shall not If I be one what doe I running this round and treading this maze in vaine As neere at my death as at my entrance And like to one wildred all night and in the morning comming to the place he set out I beseech you looke over those markes above hurt it can doe you none God sets us not to this taske of hearing and profession for policy and to keep us occupied and from idlenesse No he sets us to heaven-ward if we see not his scope we may wander all our lives and never the nearer and what a sad woe would that bring with it Many poore soules are afraid that death will come ere grace bee perfected But I pray God it prove not the portion of many that feare it not but are confident that the upper milstone running upon the nether the corne will be grownd whereas alas they have no corne between the milstones their soules laâ— not in for any such matter as to get their soules saved and broken Esau thought nothing when he dallied with his birthright but after it was gone all his howling could not recover it Be wise therefore looke still at the scope the end must pay for all be sure your growths to heavenward be sure though slow be sure your conception be good and that the seed of God is in you then shall all your combats and strifes be as Rebecca's whom God told she had twins So be sure there be a child a breeding and true life for that will beare you through and at your birth you shall forget your sorrow Otherwise as the unhappy woman who carries a mole orabortive in her hath many feares and saith either I goe with child or with my death so shall it fare with you So much for this first 2. Branch of Instruction Censure neither our selves nor othâ—rs in the matter of Grace Againe it should teach us neither to censure others nor our selves in the passages of our endeavours strifes for heaven Not others To say thus and thus long they have beene striving and making towards salvation and yet they daily complaine as men that have got but little alway in their complaints doubts and conflicts Surely I feare there is little in them No say not so If they be the Lords the issue shall bee good Reasons why God justly permits it thus I gave before Now I adde that these rash censures are commonly theirs who are little acquainted with the trade of faith Alas you know not what the ventures of this Merchant and the toile of this husbandman are Thinke not sinisterly of grace for the paines and the severall troubles that it brings with it If it be more easie with some then with others blesse God you have avoided many a rock and hazard that others meet
with But therefore to judge others doe it not Say that their owne rebellion hath made an easie way to become hard to them what then if they be saved any way what skills it The harder it is and the more it cost the sweeter it will be and the harder to forgoe Looke rather to thy selfe that thy strivings be lawfull then judge them whose strifes are difficult for so it must be till God have brought a base heart to lye downe at his feet with shame Many a noise must pierce a dead heart ere it live many a terror and many a pang of selfe-love many a contradiction feare and hope must come in his way who arrives at heaven onely this is the comfort No enemy shall finally deprive such of their labour as are called to the hope of salvation unfeignedly Nay rather Rom. 14.13 if thou get thither more easily feare that there may be in thee many an old dreg which perhaps is purged out of others by sad medicines but how ever judge them not The end shall make all manifest 1 Cor. 4.5 judge not another mans servant he stands or falls to his owne Master Pitty such rather and pray that God would ease their travell And secondly much lesse condemne thy selfe 3. Branch Instruction Christians must beware of condemning themselves Esay 40.2 because thou findest the worke of grace to hang long in suspence and not to come off with such ease and haste as thou desirest Doe not entertaine base feares into thy heart nor tempt God by putting thy selfe amongst hypocrites and reading thine owne doome looke to those markes I set downe and then conclude it s not in thee but in the Lord to shorten thy travell and to determine thy warfare it is his work who can neither be shortned nor hastned by thee he onely knowes what corruption must be tamed what grace quickned hurt it shall doe thee none to be tried if thou be sure the worke was not of thine owne beginning but Gods know he is faithfull who hath begun who also will finish in due time Thou wouldest be loth thy wife should come before her time as much as thou longest for the fruit of her wombe but art desirous she should fulfill it And thou dost well Doe so here in thy owne case A thousand yeares is as one day with the Lord 2 Pet. 2. to teach thee some of his patience when his day is come it will seeme no whit too long And in the meane season who upholds thee from sinking Is it not the Lord But perhaps thou wilt say Thou feelest but small hope and much sadnesse and deadnesse of spirit I answer thee That may be thy discontent and impatience For why Although thou feelest no thrivings yet perhaps thou maiest thrive and grow nearer thy hopes then thou art aware The infant growes towards birth daily whether it be strong or weake None of Gods cost shall bee lost upon his no drop of his pretious seed can be spilt Though thy course seeme dead to thee yet if the Lord attend thy fruit within and ripen it forme and fashion it in thy heart by secret and unknowne degrees is it not well Thou dost not know how one bone or one joint is framed in the wombe Simil. yet they lose no day no houre of their appointed time Thou seest no haires bredth of growing in thy corne yet it encreaseth daily and even that winter life thereof which stands at a stay and seems dead yet gathers secret heart and strength at the roote which after in the spring makes it shoot and branch forth The Lord is now doing for thee that which thou knowest not of but shalt know hereafter That is Joh. 10.9 that grace cannot be wrought out with thy sweat and care but by his spirit and he is the Soveraigne God who will be adored by all that come to beleeve They must come to a low point in themselves and confesse that God hath them at the advantage to save or destroy which when it hath tamed them throughly under this mighty hand of his to be at his dispose then perhaps he will not take but release the vantage for the glory of his Grace yea truly although the Lord should respit his worke till thy death yet mutter not but know that he chuses that time because then commonly the soule is brought to the narrowest point and sees no props to support her nor helpes to cling to then being at the greatest strait either to trust to a promise or to perish it is put to it and forced to resigne all and to cast it selfe upon meer mercy which while shee walked at large in the world with many false props about her shee found it not so easie to doe Thus much for this Use Vse 2 This sweet Doctrine in the second place serves to reprove and confute the false imputation of many cavilling and slanderous spirits Reproofe and Confutation in their backbiting the Ministers of the Gospell and contrarily for the encouraging of the Minister in his course of painfull persisting in the worke of perswasion Quarrellers against the Ministers unablenesse to comfort the distressed most sinfull For the first of these There be many prophane ones of this sort in all places who cast reproach upon the Gospell and Ministery as unable to effect that which it pretends Oh say they when these Ministers first preach the Law they beare people in hands that it is the way to raise up their soules to hope but for ought we see such dejected spirits complaine every day that their condition is more and more heavy they see themselves further off then ever I had rather be as I was saith another for before I was quiet but now I see the gulfe in which I lye to be deep and terrible But oh poore wretch Is it thus with all Are not some daily raised through mercy as well as others cast down What Dost thou expect as soone a lifting up as thou feelest a consternation Art thou better then he that said Psal 85.8 He would hearken what the Lord would say for he would speake peace to his Saints Surely it s to bee feared thine humbling is but violent and then thou maiest cavill long enough for thou shalt revolt quickly to thine old vomit Gods matters are too hot Job 15.11 and too heavy for thee But say thou art no such yet tell me Are the consolations of God such vaine things with thee Is it not more eligible to be under the hands of a mercifull God who in his good time can perswade the unconvinced spirit and bring it to the bent of his bow then to be under that bondage for a time which the Law by sin hath brought upon thee The like speeches doe many use concerning others How doe base parents husbands wives and kindred cry out of the word when it hath begunne to ceaze upon their children wives and husbands or kinsfolke
Oh they say its pitty such Ministers should live they serve for no other save to gaster and unsetle men who are in peace They have done that with their words which all their labour with both hands cannot undoe againe Oh wofull wretch Is the Minister able to goe beyond the Lord Is he not a servant of God to doe what he will use him for Esay 10.15 Rom. 9. Shall the axe exalt it selfe against him that cutteth therewith Or the clay say to the Potter why dost thou make no more haste to fashion me No it s enough that he shall heale whom he hath wounded and make up the breach he hath made when God will use him In the meane time perhaps thy cavilling at the meanes bindes Gods hand behinde him thou needest not wonder that he doth thy wife or child so little good rather cease thy rebelling as bootlesse and yeeld thy selfe to come into Gods order that he may worke upon thy heart as he hath done theirs And so let it by the way encourage the Minister of God who pleads for the glory of God and travells with a soule burthened and despairing of ever seeing good day Oh Lord saith many a such one Vse 3 it is for thee that I have so urged the conscience of my hearer to trust upon thy accomplishment of thy word If I have deceived the people Encouragement to the Ministers of God Ezek. 14.9 Rom. 3.7 thou hast deceived me Oh if I should leave any poore soule in the briars and never see the worke of faith finisht in him I should be accounted a liar for God! what a dishonour were this Lord put to thine hand helpe thy weake servant save thine owne name and my credit Disable me not from being beleeved leave me not a reproach to vile ones Alas They whom I have to deale with are a sturdy and a rebellious people cavillers and such as will disgrace me if thy word should not prove true honour me therefore and set thy seale to my poore labours that in my truth thy name may be glorified 2 Cor. 10.4 Esay 57.18 batter and pull down their high stomacks plunge them into horrors and then create the fruit of the lips in them and strengthen me to be an able Minister of reconciliation that so the mouthes of them who would traduce thy Messengers and Ordinances may bee stopped Even as the Lord Jesus Joh. 17. praied his Father to glorifie him for the sake of them whom he had given him so doe thou entreat also Oh in thy weldoing be not discouraged by such nor be too sollicitous for God! feare not Esay 42.8 he will not give his glory to another he will not be laught at as unable to goe through that which he hath begunne These poore servants of Naaman were weake instruments to speake of but yet made strong enough by the Lord to conquer their Master so thou shalt perhaps be the instrument to water that which others have planted Gal. 2. And what if others enter into thine If God may have a Temple built by Salomon 2 Chron. 28.14 David will lay in Timber and Cedars and willinglly forgoe the name thereof And therefore distrust not God nor faint in thy service Thirdly let this be use of Admonition to us that since God hath Vse 3 said it He will not alway contend but create peace Admonition Cleere and justifie God in his delay of grace therefore wee judge not amisse of God when we see the worke deferred as if he did deserve the blame but rather cleer him and say He cannot lie the fault lyes some where else The truth is we heare of few who honour God in the improvement of this promise though it be not the fault of all for many doe beare witnesse to God in this kinde But why Because they wilfully make it a long journey which God makes short And first they will not confesse that which God hath done They think faith to be such a sensible effectuall grace that none can have it but by and by they shall see the flame of it and so not discerning any excellency of effects they consult with their owne feelings and conclude there is nothing at all Alas poore soules the beginnings of faith are poore though the encreases may be great Job 8.7 Spirituall things in a carnall subject are as hardly discerned as a pearle among much dung that which is our owne appeares easily and dismaies us But that which is Gods is more secret Againe many looke more at their owne stirrings of the poole then at Gods I can speak it by experience that whereas one hath made complaint of his not clasping to a promise and mourned simply for unbeleefe ten have bemoaned their losse of the affections which they have had in hearing praier or conference A signe that their owne is nearer then Gods worke with them Faith is not alway a victorious sensible and reflecting grace upon the soule wherein it is But a casting of her selfe after all her fruitlesse wrastlings as being convinced of the insufficiency and invalidity of them all upon the streame of the word to carry her to the haven of peace If then you have lost your first feelings and zeale give not God over but still seek him for a further spirit of recovery and encrease upon the best grounds Naaman here had lost his first hopes yet you see he recovers them againe by better insight and perswasion and that ere he looked for it Pray earnestly O Lord thou hast power to set the Sunne ten degrees backe Lord set mine ten degrees forward Thou oh Lord hast all instruments meanes seasons perswasions blessings crosses in thy hand to worke by apply them Lord and suffer not my soule which is sunke into giddinesse ease worldlinesse discontent of spirit and dead sullennesse to lye still in that dungeon Drive me out of my carnall tracke into thy Royall Rode and if I must be delaid yet keepe me in thy way presse the Lord with his owne word and say Thou canst discover to me all my steppings out of thy way all my stops and lets Thou canst uncharme Satans spell Thou canst multiply perswasion and weaken disswasion Thou canst remove that utter unwillingnesse and uncouthnesse of the soule to this work and cause lythnesse and complying therewith Thou canst pull me out of those snares which enwrapt me in bondage as the weeds did Ionah No rocks shall split me with feare no Syrens shall inchant me with baites if thou assist Thou canst menage thy Spirit with so strong an arme Esay 55.8.9 that it shall prosper to doe what thou wilt and cause that no raine no snow shall returne in vaine but doe that for which thou sentest it Take heed give not God over trifle not out thy time improve fasting to cast out the Prince of Divells Unbeleefe and frequent the Sacrament as Gods sealing Ordinance and then know that he who hath begunne will finish
except thou bee out of the way when the houre of performance is come Vse 4 But lastly and above all hearken to this all you to whom of right the Doctrine belongs Consolation to all who have found God in their conversion you who have long waited for this day behold it here even the day starre of consolation arising in you hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 I dare say for you you doe not gape after comfort to spend it upon your lusts but to heare what God will say That you returne no more to folly to your old distempers To you I apply this blessed truth to you I say whose big hearts are come downe and lye at the foot-stoole of mercy and marke what I say Come out of your ashes take unto you this white garment of joy and put it on your warfare is accomplished Oh that this day might be the time of your lifting up perhaps it may for ought I know take this handkercheife and wipe away all your teares with it let this Sun beame of comfort chase away all former mists and fogs of darkenesse and distrust and let it be as old Eli a voice from God to your sad spirits that with Hanna having received your answer you may be heavy no more 1 Sam. 1.17 1 Sam. 7.12 Set up your altar with Samuel and say Hitherto the Lord hath holpen us and adde moreover he will give me the hand and helpe me over the hill of difficulties that remaine Be so farre from distrusting this that you proceed and say He that hath thus fulfilled his word in one kinde he will doe it in all other set me beyond gun-shot of all corruptions temptations Divell opposition and malice of his instruments and keep mee till his comming and till I obtain full redemption Rather then the Lord would not accomplish that promise which was 4000. yeares old of sending the Lord Jesus hee would even strip himselfe and bee made sinne and shame of holinesse and honour Did hee so deny himselfe Galat. 4.4 and all to keep that maine promise and dare I distrust him in the rest and the smaller No surely Therefore poore soule that thou mayst be established come in and believe this maine one The night is past and the houre of darknesse is gone Now the Almond tree blossomes Cant. 2.11.12 and all the sad disasters of the Winter are passed Now in this Garden of God come meet thy beloved and let him give thee his love Henceforth say O my soule thou hast marched valiantly Thou art above all thy former feares and sorrowes Thou wert afraid lest death should prevent thee ere this day but that was impossible for then Gods word had been of no effect Say thus Now me thinkes in the comfort of this truth I could leap over a wall Oh that I should see it no sooner Now the time of God is come it is so cleare that I wonder I should ever stagger or distrust it I see it must bee wholly spun out of the Promise and not out of mine owne Bowels Gen. 28.16 Surely God was in this truth heretofore and yet till now I was never aware of it Now I am now I blesse God that ever I lived to this day that God should in such a comfortlesse world reveale such glad tidings unto me and make me to see his salvation Oft have I heard of him with mine eare but now I see him with mine eyes Now I can say Job 42.3.4 That which I have long sought I have found I have found him whom my soule loveth Why shouldst thou not say thus Psal 43.5 Why doth thy spirit fret within thee why art thou so sad when the Lord hath given thee the oyle of gladnes Doest thou not know that it hath been the portion of sundry Saints of God before thee Oh then climbe not up to heaven nor go downe into the deep to fetch Christ Thou shalt not need This day is come thy accepted time The promise is neere thee Rom. 10. even in thy heart to beleeve it As the Angell said to Peter Arise and follow me so doe thou and say Now of a truth I see the Lord hath indeed delivered me from Herod and the Jewes Acts 12.6 How went that Eunuch away from Philip rejoycing Acts 8. end What made Glover to speake when hee saw that Chariot of fire to carry him to heaven Oh! hee is come hee is come And another at the stake to take her leave not onely of her Husband Children and Countrey but of Faith and Hope saying Farewell you and welcome Love What a triumphant speech was it Speciall examples of soules deeply long loden yet at length comforted Another whose tendernesse over her children had not been ordinary and her feares great being very sicke to cry out I take no thought for them I leave them to my God and as for my distempers and temptations I have none I know I shall bee saved Another fearing hee should live in a great sicknesse asked Doe you thinke I should ever keep this assurance till another sicknesse and death come He was answered Yes and so foure yeares after at death he lay as before rapt and ravisht above world and all and being asked how he did said I am new out of a Trance I have had a doore opened and seene the glory of God and now the doore is clapt to but I peep at the crevis to keep the sight of it how loath am I to forgoe it To conclude another poore creature very weake to hold any thing all her life yet most constant in meanes till death when all thought her neere gone bade them weep no more for her nor take no thought for shee knew shee should doe well Oh the faith of these and hundreds more wee have seene and all to evidence this truth Oh! let us tread in their steps and follow their conversation and when thine end shall come Christ shall but stoop down and write upon thy heart 2 or 3 words Bee of good comfort Joh. 8.6 thy sinnes are forgiven but all thine accusers shall goe away and thy self be acquitted for ever Oh be thankfull to think of it and let no stranger world or lusts enter into this thy joy to defile it Thus much for this fourth and last use and for this doctrine Now I hasten to the next Doctrine And having ended the time when he obeyed we come now to the obedience it selfe True humilitie scornes not to learne of the meanest Hee went downe and washed himselfe in Jorden Wherein although the main thing which I intend is the Act of his faith yet one thing I must tell you of first viz. an amplifying of it by his humility that he was thus subdued by his servants and glad to yeeld at their instance counsell though their Master a great Prince An unusuall and unlikely thing that such a favourite to his Prince as hee was and so great
encounters me let him thinke himselfe honoured that I will vouchsafe to foyle him Some are of so arrogant spirits that they scorne to receive a good turne from their inferiour But O proud foole who art thou Mayst not thou dye in thy nest for want of a meane helper As once a great woman â—id who scorning the poor at the last being in her country house smitten with the plague was forsaken of all and then cried out that God was just I observe that it is the honour of brave Souldiers that when they are beaten almost out of their Castle yet they will capitulate for their honour to goe out of their harbour with their pikes traild their match light and in array or else they will dye ere they stirre That bravery is in most men they will lose their lives ere they lose their great stomacke I confesse in civill cases there is some reason in such things Alexander is commended that being chalenged by a meane fellow to run at Tilt with him hee scorn'd it and sayd Kings must runne with none but Kings for they can get no credit by victory but lose much by being foyled But in matters of God it is otherwise Be willing to be taught reproved by any be they never so meane if there be grace be there never such infirmities and contemptiblenesse It is a good Motto which he gave Not alwayes there is good in the great but alway there is great in the good Let the honour of the grace and the pretiousnesse of a Christian cover his outwards and discerne that which is within at a narrow crevis Be not of this minde I will heare none save the greatest Doctor and learnedest man in the Countrey such or such a man of fame and note As for these ordinary Preachers I slight them Those whom thou admirest are unwilling to take the paines and those who take the paines thou art unwilling to heare and so between both a proud heart bringeth to destruction That Heathen King Eglon when as Ehud a lame man came to him and told him he had a message from God arose off his Throne Judg. 3.20 and came downe to speake with him In base and common things wee disdaine not the basest Gentlemen will be haile fellow well met with base Jesters swearing Falconers or hang-byes if for their ends and Ladies will send their children to dance or sing or to learn fashions of base peasants and not disdaine it But to learne of a good man or woman the trade of God to heare any thing from them which might rectifie either their hearts or manners they despise it exceedingly Shall not their own practice confute them wofully If Religion were any of their ends would they not do as much abase themselves as low for that as for the learning of prick-song or the like And whereas thou wilt say I will not doe so meane a fellow such honour as to subdue my spirit or put my neck under his girdle I answer thee Looke thou at God not at him but if this defeat thee of cure thank thy selfe hee is but very little hungry or thirsty who will not doe a stone or leather pot or vessell the honour to quench his thirst nor eate any meate except out of plate with a silver forke Note They that will not honour others so much as to learne of them must be content to shame themselves so much as to perish Oh young man see thy face in a glasse how is sage Salomon faine to flatter him and to say My sonne Prov. 4.1.2 heare instruction let thine eare hearken to my counsell And all because a proud heart is wonderously averse from the counsell even of our betters yea of a King speaking for God How much more hard then to harken to meane persons when we are great Alas this is growne out of the world yet Nâ—aman had been a Leper but for meane ones It were better that the Lord did abase thee very low with some great crosse to pull downe thine haughty heart then suffer thy pride to usher thy destruction When Darius was pursued hard by enemies and very dry and thirsty he saw a puddle with a little water in it and having drank it said he never tasted sweeter in all his life So should the counsell of the meanest be to thee if stung in conscience or lying upon thy death bed But if thou despise them before who knowes whether God will so farre honour thee then Thirdly let this be examination Examination and triall of thee whether in truth Vse 3 God have humbled thee or no whether ever thou couldest discern aright between the pretious and the vile and both loath the greatest if base and honour the persons of the meanest and their counsell if really good David could abase himselfe thus even to hearken after the meanest and to make them of his house Psal 101. 1 Sam. 25. And poore Abigail was pretious to him and her counsell blessed though hee were heire apparant of a Crowne Let us note this for even in Religious persons this secret tang of basenesse may lurke as wee see in St. Iames James 2.3 who brings in rich Christians despising the poorer You say to them who have rings upon their fingers Come up hither but to the other Sit at my foot-stoole A signe that this base corruption is very closely lodged in us to underprize goodnesse and counsell because it dwells meanly A poore man was forgotten though wise saith Salomon and one that delivered the Citie by his wisedome Eccles 9.15 If thou doest so highly esteeme grace as to take it out of the poorest creature with a thankfull heart for as he said of Ministers that they were goldenest when the Chalices were of Wood so I say the man may have a Pearle in his bosome when he weares but a bare coat it is a signe of some humility Lastly let it be exhortation to us to beare humble mindes and lowly spirits not to disdaine to learne of the meanest Nay let us bee thus vile Esay 1. Psa 32.8.9 and if the world thinke us so let us bee more vile let us learne of the Pismire and the Lamb and the Storke and the Swallow and the Lillies yea the grasse for we are very ignorant even as the Horse the Mule and had need to be set to School to all Masters and yet learne but little The very bird that lives in a Cage foure inches square being naturally bred to flye abroad in the open Coast should teach us self-deniall contentment she can sing and make her prison a Paradise our base hearts disdain to be content or thankfull when as we abound in all mercies have the world at will An whole Councell once condescended to the judgement of one Paphnutius a meane person speaking from God chusing rather to hearken to a mean person then to persist in their errour If so many learned Bishops sage and ancient
which God will have out and there the Lord and it are upon debate or there is a cursed naturall antipathy between the Lord and the way of salvation or the soule is full of teches and pritches against reproofe or it hatcheth some false conceit that it hath obeyd when it hath not which it will not see or puffes and snuffes against some other thing the Minister the Ordinance the difficulty of Religion the uncertainty of the promise Whatsoever it be it is a distastfulnesse of heart and a resistance against God which if it were not the soule would nakedly come in and obediently submit to the Gospel But this disease hath this misery that the more dangerous it is the lesse it will bee convinced of such a thing and this nourishes the heart in her wretchednesse it is not time alone which will heale it rather it causes it to rankle and wax worse and worse Men ascribe it to other matters being willing to gull themselves because they have no will to be rid of it They say they have weake memories little capacity and the Minister is too high for them But in very deeds their hearts are too high for him till the Word come neerer 2 Cor. 10.4 and worke inward to cast downe all imaginations and high things no submission will follow to the obedience of Christ The effect every one dare confesse but the cause they will not see it is not unprofitablenesse or an ill memory that hath caused your hearts to be so surly and perverse but it is a proud and gainsaying heart Acts 28.27 which hath so long made you unprofitable Doe not lin till you are convinced hereof for till the cause be seene it cannot bee removed Doe not lay the fault where it is not doe not blanch over the cause with fine words mitigate not the extremity of the sin with gentlenesse Perhaps you doe not live in wrath and rage with your wives family neighbours you make a shift to comply with men courteously so long as no body hurts you but truly if you beleeve not in all this while there is a pad in the straw your spirits are not inwardly brought to that tender softnesse and selfe-deniall to thinke equall thoughts of God and his way something stickes in your base stomackes which will not suffer the word of God to goe downe and pierce into you to perswade you If you would but bethinke you what a great let this is which hitherto you have not seene or if you could thinke how the case would bee changed with you if once a tractable comming and inclining heart were in you how the Ministers of God the Angels â—ea the Spirit of grace it selfe which you have so long grieved and resisted would rejoyce in the change Oh! you would never lin with your owne soules till you had cast it out and having shaken it off you would thinke it a greater ease then ever that Martyr of Christ did B. Hooper when he had cast off all his Popish trash and furniture from his shoulders Secondly it is reproofe Reproofe to many Professors who in hope are of Vse 2 the better sort who although by this sinne have not perhaps wholly stopped and choked the passages of the grace of conversion Christians of crabbed peevish stubborne hearts lose the grace of faith yet by the dregges thereof remaining in them and nourished dampe that obedience of heart that life of faith and selfe-deniall yea that peace joy and open heart to God and goodnesse which else they might attaine It is strange how some Christians dare give place to their corruption in this kinde yea grow to thinke it their praise Some are sowre and crabbed as it were steeped in vinegar so censorious and uncharitable that none can escape their censure some so suspitious jealous that none can live by them some so sullen that no estate can content them some so selfe-loving that none can please them save they who humour them in all their passions and pangs some so implacable that if once offended they can scarce looke a man in the face to rights some so eager in revenge that nothing else will content them some alwayes stirring up debate betweene neighbours so busie in Law and in matters of contention as if they were Salamanders alway living in the fire others so eager in spirit so lowring and sad that though they breake not out with others yet they never agree with themselves nor walke with a cheerfull countenance Why Save that the sweet oyle of gladnesse hath not suppled them nor the peace of God which passeth understanding hath possessed and stablished them Oh friends How dare you dally and venture to abide thus How sad a reflex will this bee upon your death-beds You will say It doth oft trouble you and you are grieved for your waspishnesse and anger But what then Is that an amends to God to vomit up that at an odde time which afterward you doe returne to and licke up ugaine without sense or feeling Oh! it were meet for you to be so heart-sick of it that you might for ever abhor it Christians should mark the secret creepings of such poyson how it dogges them chokes humblenesse and cheerfulnesse in them and makes them walke unfruitfully and unsetledly from time to time And say that sometimes you fast and pray and vow and covenant against them yet if the corruption and your soules are so incorporated together that when it steales in upon you with the old sweetnesse it inchants you and disables you from resistance what cause of boasting have you None surely nor shall till the Lord come between you and home with the spirit of true remorce and sorrow for it unto repentance never to be repented of and till your beloved lust become your bane See and apply that in James 4.1.2.3 till the Lord in secret chasten your spirits that you can sit and bemoane your selves with Ephraim and say O Lord what is the cause that I am so enthralled to this stout and unbroken heart Alas No word of thine no patience of thine can enter while this sin harden me I am not fit to bee wrought upon by any crosse blessing meditation or ordinance All washes away as it comes Oh! shall I never be rid of this misery this chaine When Lord will it once be Who shall breake off the slavish custome of my heart this way and set me at liberty Oh! if once it may bee I shall even account it as a second resurrection from the dead Oh! set such a guard over mee that I may never be surprized any more with it Let mee thinke the Divell not farre off when I see this messenger of his at my heeles so to dogge and buffet me Let thy Spirit from above which is pure peaceable Jam. 3 i5 long-suffering mercifull and patient humble and loving deliver me from this spirit of envie sullennesse Selfe and her fruits most earthly sensuall
of a possible but also of a likely cure hee comes to the Prophets owne house and stands there to receive his direction Which shewed how restlesse this hope of his made him and what singular estimation was bred in him of the Prophet Fifthly he standing at the Prophets curtesie hearing the errand is marvellously offended at it as too slow and leasurely for his hasty spirit and bewrayes thereupon what a deale of scurfe lay within to cavill against it and to breake off his former hopes and likings unto an utter distaste and rebellion against the way of God with a furious resolution to give over because he neither could speake with the Prophet nor brooke his direction which yet was all by God sweetly governed so that being upon this tickle point yet was he not suffered to depart and goe out of Gods blessing into his owne warme Sunne and to sinke in his owne carnall selfe-love but stronglier assisted then ever and set upon by such powerfull perswasions to obey the Prophets counsell as although very unlike to prevaile with such a spirit yet wrought out selfe-love and pride and made his spirit at the last to come downe and submit thereto most readily And these were the passages of Gods prevention and assistance Now for the perfecting worke of God it is most cleare in this verse wherein his heart being humbled he assents to the Prophet both commanding and promising and as a man in a fit condition for the purpose doth that which before hee was very unfit for obeyes beleeves goeth down and washeth himselfe in Jorden Thus having made way to the poynt collected hence Proofes of the Doctrine I proceed to prove the truth thereof by Scripture which is not more fertile in any one thing then in proving of this For although the words of condition of the promise be not in the Scripture in tearmes yet are they equivalently and in effect everywhere in the word both in the Old New Testament As when our Saviour saith Luke 5.31.32 I came not to call the righteous but the sinners to repentance And the whole have no need of the Physitian but the sicke not stomack-sick who can ease themselves by vomiting but the heart-sicke and not onely so neither but those that are so deadly sicke as no other Physitian can heale I am no Physitian for fees but in meere mercy when no mercenary one can helpe then for meere pitty and to save life I will help rather then a soule should miscary and rather for the honour of my skill and mercy Esa 55.1 then for gaine for I take neither money nor price for my cure I will heale him Esay 57.17 Esa 57.17 Marke upon what termes and conditions Christ cures even as Jorden cured Naaman when Abana Pharphar were out of date and himselfe at a plunge so when a sinner is such in his owne sense all are so but yet in their element as a fish in the water feeling no weight of it feeles it is convinced of it and neere to execution for ought is in himselfe What else save this condition is implyed in all those Parables of the lost sheep lost groat Luke 15 4.8.11 Matth. 15.24 prodigall Sonne Those that were never lost alway found alway with their father no fatherlesse children are excluded out of this number Why must that son spend all try the hard world bee forlorn and forsaken ere he knew the true worth of a father ere his father comes out to kisse him to put on all those abiliments upon him to kil the fat Calf to welcome him Why did he not so to his other good Son who was alway with him and therefore needed no Kid nor Calfe Because hee was alway well and therefore it had been ridiculous so to expresse himself to him he would have thought his father a foole in so doing Thus Hosee expresses the Condition Hosee 13.3 Ashur shall not save us wee will not ride upon horses Why It was no course to thrive But with thee the fatherlesse finde mercy Why Because it is Gods condition and qualification of such as he will save So Esay 57.16.17 I am high and holy but I looke downe and picke out some above others to make my favourites Esay 28.9 Who are they The humble ones to revive the contrite ones and what will hee doe to such Hee will create the fruit of the lippes which is faith and thereby peace to the neere and to the farre off and restore comfort to their mourners So elsewhere I will powre water upon the thirsty grounds Esay 44.3 and thirsty lands such as are scorcht and gape for my raines to refresh them Againe whom shall I teach wisedome To whom shall I give instruction Not to all but to such as are under the condition of it humble trembling ones and weaned from the breasts fooles and Ideots Small credit is to be got by such as have more wisedome then seven men besides such as are full of it but to make a foole wise is somewhat worth How often doth the Lord Jesus in one Chapter urge this Condition Blessed are the poore in spirit Mat. 5.3.4.5 the hungry after righteousnesse the meeke in heart Theirs is the Kingdome they shall bee satisfied and the like Why not others Doe not they want it Yes but they need it not it were ill bestowed The Kingdome of God is like to a Merchant Mat. 13.43.44 who sought a Pearle of price which having found hee weighed the worth of it he hid it hee went and sold all his reall estate and bought it Every one could not so value it venture all upon it Jam. 4.7.8 Submit your selves under the mighty hand of God saith Iames. And what then When you are downe the Lord will raise you up Those that be raised already care not for this preferment And to finish proofes what meaneth the holy Ghost by describing all converts by this condition what went before the conversion of those murderers of the Lord of life They were convinced of their bloudy malice and of the mercy of Christ who was willing to save them that slew him Act. 2.37 and then they were prickt in heart What then Men and brethren what shall wee doe What made their bowels earne and made them glad to learne of the Apostles The same grace that made them humble What caused the Iaylor to come leaping in to Paul and Silas whom he had whipped and wronged His heart was broke to see the mercy which God shewed him Act. 14. and in the keeping in of the Prisoners to save his soule So much for proofes Reason 1 Reasons of the Doctrine follow Such onely and all such may and must come in and obey the Gospell by believing Because first No other save such are brought within any generall bounds of salvation but still remaine incorrigible impenitent secure carnall and in their sinnes If others were in Gods ordinary way and
or if it doe yet thou shalt alway be doubtfull The Word on the contrary saith Doe not desist nor revolt to thy former pleasure in sin for in that course there is no hope thou art then in a desperate case Proceed rather and goe to the promise for thereby its possible thou maist find some redresse What doth the soul in this strife She compares the argument of the word with the counsell of the flesh and findes it better then this because it is farre more safe to chuse a possible redresse of misery then to fall upon the assured pykes of certaine wo and despaire Here we see a fight but no victory no assurance only that rest which the soule hath is not from any thing she feeles within herselfe but without in the word Secondly here comes in a second doubt and therein Satan tells Quest 2 the soule it is true Thou chusest hope before despaire but what hast thou to doe with peace Or how knowest thou whether thou oughtest rather to chuse the one then the other or what right hast thou to ease and pardon Here againe steppes in the word and succours the soule telling her That she ought to fasten upon life and pardon and chuse it before sinne and death for God hath bred in her the condions of faith a longing mourning restlesse selfe-denying heart therefore to her and to no other this pardon and ease belongs and she may claime it God indeed hath no where said in his word I will pardon thee Iohn thee Thomas c. But he hath said such and such I will pardon so and so qualified Now she assumes this qualification to herselfe and therefore she concludes that to her it belongs This is another word of the Spirit which still drawes on a poore soule to bee willing to beleeve But now comes the nearest worke of the Spirit in the word and Quest 3 that answers a third objection which is this How shall I know in speciall its mine owne Perhaps it may belong unto such a one as I am but many things belong to men which yet they are by one meanes or other defeated of How shall I know that God will give it me in speciall and grant me the gift of faith to beleeve it In this the word grapples closely and nearly with the soule and brings it to the strict point of beleeving and tells the soule That all to whom the promise of pardon and life belongs by the allowance of God he will most undoubtedly bring it to passe for them and conferre it upon them yea and give them faith to cast themselves upon it For in saying Come unto me all you loaden ones and I will ease you he meanes not onely you may but you must come not only it belongs unto you to come but I will in my calling you enable you to come and put strength and power into you to come that is to beleeve and by beleeving ease you By this the word setles the soule upon the promise as being that which it seemes she sees God is willing she should beleeve and therefore will conferre it on her And in so doing the Spirit causeth the heart which is willing to become effectually willing that is takes away all feare of defeating and tells her she shall speed of her desire and therefore now she dares venture and cast herselfe upon the promise and if she perish so she is content for she dares jeopard her soule upon Gods Truth Now we see this casting and venturing upon the promise is the best of all these three acts of the word and yet here is no assurance for the soule in respect of herselfe is neverthelesse full of doubting all her bottome is this last word of the promiser that he will effect that in the soule which he hath promised By all these I inferre The act of faith is no assurance within but an evidence without resting upon the word which word the more evident it is made to the soule the better and stronger is the act of beleeving but the best of these is no assurance Quest It will bee demanded May not assurance be had at all I answer Answ yes it may be and is the portion of such as the Lord sees meet to enjoy it Eph. 1. Rom. 8. but that stands upon another bottome and that is the immediate evidence of the Spirit in the conscience of one who is already a beleever making her to know that she beleeves This is not by the word directly but the Spirit of the word which reflects that into the heart with knowledge and feeling which before she only had by the fidelity of the Promiser But this as I said is not faith for then none should have faith who want this which God forbid but an effect of faith in some speciall persons and not all that beleeve Thus much for the former question Now for the latter viz. how faith is wrought The sufficiency of a promise is the object of faith You see brethren it is evident that the nature and worke of saving faith stands not in any fulnesse of sailes or reflex knowledge and overpowring sweetnesse of perswasion But as I said in a grounded casting herself upon the word For by this only mean faith is wrought And I call it grounded because so weighty a matter as the resting and casting of the soule upon a thing requires that the thing bee a foundation of great warrant to beare up a soule from revolting againe Nay when the conscience is come thus farre as to fasten upon the word Oh! she hath thousand objections against the sincere meaning of God in his word Hence it is that the word is so full of places wherein this sufficiency of the promise to rest upon is urged Sometime the Lord contests with them that quarrell against it Is the Arme of the Lord shortned Hath he said it and it shall not come to passe Hezechia tells us Esay 38.15 He hath spoken himselfe unto us and he hath done it Heb. 13.5 For he hath said I will not faile nor forsake thee So againe The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Among men its called an unsure argument to prove a thing by authority because men are liars further then their truth will speake for them And yet some great persons have born such sway and authority in the hearts of their Disciples that their bare word hath carried assent with it But to be sure this is a sure argument God hath said it therefore it is true as in all the words which ever went out of his mouth so especially in his promise Phil. 4. 2 Cor. 1.20 that above all pleads certainty Faithfull is he who hath promised who also will effect it And Elizabeth Luke 1. tells Mary There shall bee a performance from the Lord to his handmaid of that which he hath promised All the promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus with a thousand more But
others Consider good friends what the Scripture speakes If yee will not beleeve you shall not be established Esay 7.9 Nothing but this Anchor will settle the ship nothing but Faith will overcome the world either within us or without us The heart being unpurified will bewray it selfe onely to faith is granted to weare the crowne of victory 1 Joh. 5.5 for this is that victory even our faith Oh! who would be alway unsetled and lye open to all mischiefe who might prevent it Zach. 12.10 Conclusion of the exhortation But I conclude this Use with the former Directions and Motives Pray to God for the Spirit of grace and supplication goe together that his spirit may perswade thy soule to both these to deny thy selfe and to resigne up thy selfe to the promise Say thus Lord thy workes are all perfect where thou beginst thou finishest It is beyond flesh to retaine this grace I have run I have laboured but except thou give me the hand to helpe me over this steep hill I shall fall back again to my old distempers the end will be worse then the beginning 1 Sam. 14.13 Oh therefore let me goe up the hill of faith as Ionathan did up the hill against the Philistines give mee a signe as thou gavest him and then all lets and oppositions shall fall before me all high things which set up themselves yea the worst that is the contrariety of heart to this thy way of beleeving shall be cast downe and then shall I submit nakedly to this obedience of faith The Lord grant it to us all for his Names sake This for the first and maine Use of Exhortation be spoken Branch 2 A second Branch of Exhortation is to all such as through mercie have cast themselves upon the promise already for pardon and life and that is that they still practise the same grace in the course of their life in all their straits crosses duties dangers and difficulties in all their temptations losses wrongs and pursuits at the hands of the unthankfull or unreasonable And in a word whether for things concerning this or a better life that they cast themselves upon the promises for salvation sustaining and full redeeming them from them all Know this brethren that as much adoe as faith costs us for pardon Plead the promise for sanctification as well as pardon Matth. 4.1 yet wee have not done there It is as great a grace to preserve the soule as it was to beget it at first enemies will not give us over as soone as wee are converted to God but rather assault us more forcibly as Christ himselfe was by Satan after his baptisme and unction to be Mediator Now then what helpe have we against all affronts save to cast our soules upon him for reliefe and redresse whom wee have already adventured upon for pardon and life What is our Charter save that of our Saviour Be of good courage I have overcome the world Joh. 16.33 14.1 Esay 26.3 Let not your hearts be troubled you beleeve in the Father beleeve also in me Cast your selves upon Jehova for he is eternall strength Here on the one side steps in feare and saith I shall never overcome such a corruption and lust of earthlinesse or pride or selfe-love or revenge or uncharitablenesse or I shall not grow in grace as others doe but alway stand at a stay or I feele no thriving by the meanes still after fasting Sacraments the old deadnesse of heart abides and I walke as the horse in the mill in one dead frame of heart and life Well deny thy selfe first and then resigne up thy selfe unto the promise Doest thou willingly yeeld thy selfe to any base corruption Or doest thou wilfully slight the meanes or defile thy conscience Then looke to thy selfe and lin not till thy pardon and peace be renewed But otherwise look not at thy distrust or unworthinesse but humble thy soule for thine unbeliefe and recover by the promise Say thus Lord when I was weake and without strength I cast my selfe upon thy word for pardon of sin and release of curse how much more may I doe it for supply of wants Plead the promise now as thou wert wont to cleave to it at first When Bathsheba was afraid her sonne Salomon should bee defeated of the Kingdome 1 King 1.15.22.26 she and Nathan plotted together to concurre with one Argument and came to David saying Did not my Lord the King say that Salomon should reigne How then is it that Adonija sits on the throne What did David He rouzes up his dying body and sweares As the Lord lives looke what I have said shall be accordingly done Thus by pleading they sped Plead thou the promise which once God gave thee and so shalt thou also Lord Didst not thou say Sinne shall not reigne Thine shall grow Thou wilt finish thy worke and they shall hold out to the end And now lo the Divel perswades me it shall be otherwise But O Lord had I first clave to sense and feeling I had never beleeved Therefore now teach mee to cast my selfe upon thy Word still and looke off from appearances Although I feele no great growth yet because thou hast said I shall and I doe not wilfully oppose it therefore I beleeve I doe In like manner steps in the malice of Satans instruments and they threaten my ruine and make me thinke I shall one day perish by them But I aske my soule Doest thou not side and sort with them by an ill conscience forsaking thine integrity Then cast thy selfe upon the promise Psal 73. end Call thy selfe a foole a beast for distrusting God Roll thy wayes upon him and say Was not I alwayes with thee Didst thou not promise to guide me by counsell till glory whom have I in heaven or earth like thee When Iehoshaphat in 2 Chron. 20.5 was beset with three armies what did he Cleave to sense and so despaire No he pleads a promise an old one made to Salomon at the dedication of the Temple Didst thou not say when enemies should besiege us and we looke up to thy throne thou wouldst looke downe Lo here is an object for thee Mount Seir and Moab and others What did God Instantly answered and scattered them all Alas brethren our faith forgets her plea and is weary of her worke God sets enemies about our eares to file off the rust of faith that shee may still honour him against feares and carnall reason We say we have cast anchor upon Gods bottome for pardon but how shall it appeare If we say so who shall gainsay us in a secret thing But shew it then in our course that secret grace may discover it selfe in straits and trialls that we may know all that is in our owne hearts either how weake they are that we may strengthen them or how strong that we may be thankfull But when sorrowes and feares beset thee on every side sicknesse debt losses of husband
Rom. 1 3. Eph. 1.20.21.22 that he might make himselfe a full witnesse of a perfect redemption And shall not this eight dayes rest of his cause a rest to us A rest of peace through pardon the peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost Should these things bee so darke unto us or so uselesse that we should question it whether they are worth a Sabbath or no Farre bee it from us But rather let the corruption of men provoke us to keep an holier closer and not ceremoniously to observe a more spirituall Sabbath then ever wee â—ave done Vse 2 Secondly this point is terror to all hypocrites who being pinched with the authority of the Word according to it that is the closenesse of commands Terror to all that cast off the yoke of Gods commands doe kick and spurne at it and rather then they will be subject to it they cast it off and lay it in the dirt Perhaps so far as it will goe in their own stream they will allow it but let it pinch them and wring them as a straight shooe wrings the foot then they cast off Psal 2.7 and will no longer endure it Thus those Psal 2. are said to cast off the cords of Christ he means the Jewes and Pharisees when they felt the spiritualnesse of his kingdome For the opening of this Use Foure Branches first let us see the truth of the point in the grounds that hypocrites goe upon Secondly the wayes of hypocrites in balking them Thirdly the shifts they have to shift off the dint of pinching Commands And fourthly 1. Branch Hypocrites their false grounds 1. In breaking Commands apply the terrour home unto them For the first lest any should thinke there are none so vile know it that they cannot be other all things considered For first their heart is uncleane and rotten at the core although they seeme in their owne sight and in the sight of others to be never so pure They love evill therefore they breake commands naturally but they keep commands and doe good onely so farre as it agreeth with their owne ends and purposes Secondly because they are held in and detained violently from that which they aime at therefore as a prisoner in his chaines alway lies at the catch and opportunity to seeke his escape so doe these whensoever any colour or evasion any shift or trick is offered they cleanly and slily winde themselves out of the authority of God Thirdly because there is a strugling in all such hypocrites to be better thought of then they deserve therefore their occupation is perpetually to bribe their owne conscience and to delude themselves with some shewes of duty religion pangs of devotion passions and affections vows purposes of good and to keep up the damme of their own consciences from breaking in upon them and yet all this while they have no power to lay hold upon any solid bottomes of truth either threats promises or commands Fourthly its certaine that every hollow heart doth seeke finally her owne ease and quiet of carnall liberty and to be rid of the dint and power of commands from molesting her that so by her cunning tricks and distinctions she might at last scrue herselfe into a content of the flesh and to stop the mouth of conscience from any more accusation And although this cannot at the first be attained while there remaines any sparke of truth in the soule yet by degrees and by oft declinnig the dint of solemne commands it comes to passe that a base heart winnes a presumptuous habit to herselfe and finding a corrupt ease therein resolves to hold it as strongly as an honest heart would preserve sound peace and ease of conscience by the promise And so being resolved to hold whatsoever false peace she gets and to lose it upon no tearmes of a better condition she outgrowes all former tendernesse of heart which was wont to attend her and nouzells herselfe in that which she feeles as if it were a sure bottome easily beleeving that to be which she would have And this for the first ground of Terror Now to apply it Application of this first ground Consider what a fearfull state and condition this is what wofull rotten grounds these are of peace Who is there so vile and lewd except inchanted by the Divell and held in the snares of his owne lusts who durst commit himselfe to the sea of a religious course in so broken a Barke Take but one example hereof recorded I thinke for the nonce to scare all eluders and shifters with Gods Commands And that is Balaam who having his charge given him solemnly by the Lord not to goe with those messengers of Balac Num. 22.19 who came with bribes and presents in their hands to procure the service of his Sorcery and witch craft to curse Israel feeling himselfe sore pinched with this command and yet having no rest in his owne covetous heart to forgoe the wages of iniquity studies how he might reconcile Gods ends and his owne And seeing that could not bee compassed by a direct refusall to goe therefore first he bids the men stay till the morning and in the meane while he so blind-folds his own eyes as to dreame that if God would give him leave to goe he might goe But what a deluding thought was that when as his conscience told him God had denied it before Well by going to God to blanch over the matter viz. That if he would give him leave to goe he would doe no otherwise then he was bidden the Lord connives at his going And what doth he He takes it very gladly Verse 20.21 and makes use of it but from whence is it that he doth so Surely from no other bottome save this that by his going hee hoped one way or other to attaine those ends which else hee knew he should not whereas if hee had meant truely he would have abhorred such an occasion as laid a blocke in his way to fall at And how did he goe forward Surely with a foole-hardy courage and a peevish resolution to get his booty for when Gods Angell crossed him Ibid. opened his Asses mouth to convince him so blinded he was that he despised it and smote her whereas he should have returned home and abhorred his blanching with Gods command And was he sensible of himselfe in all this his race No but still impudently tels God when he saw there was no remedy he would goe backe if he might not go What was that but to upbraid God for resisting him having before given him leave And so he proceeded in his journey and sought divinations that is cast about with himselfe how he might curse the people and get his ends And when the Lord crossed him still yet to shew what mettall he was made of rather then he would lose his booty he advises Baalac how to procure God to curse them by provoking them to Idolatry and uncleannesse
owne But the true mother who knew the cost and price of her child could not endure the cutting of it asunder but cried Give her rather the child then it should be slaine Just so is it here A base heart never bred by the grace of the Spirit to obey Commands rejoices when it selfe and the word may have share and share like is glad to see the word mangled and that God should have one peece of his will and she another But a close soule obeying Commands is of a farre other frame for she hath been bred of the immortall seed of the word lien in the wombe felt the warmth and drawne the breasts of it and lives and growes by it Therefore shee cannot endure to see it divided wrested abused and cut in two rather she is content to abhorre herselfe her owne ends and respects and cries O Lord let not the childe be hurt rather let my will bee cast in the dirt This is a sad triall indeed let us come to the scanning of it While Gods and our streame may be suffered to runne in one chanell we easily give way to God But if it so fall out that he will not suffer our dung to swimme with his Apples but if we will goe in his stream we must goe in it meerly onely our lusts must bee renounced nay perhaps so the case stands that even our lawfull liberties must be removed our lives healths gifts contents ease elbowroom credit and sway must be shaken off to obey a Command and those who would perswade us as Peter did Christ to pitty our selves Mat. 16.25 must bee rated away and forsaken wife childe friend counsellor people Minister who come in and tel us if you suffer and obey God farewell the ease of our life farewell the jollity of our towne our shops trades takings revenewes credits contents Oh! I say if in such a case the life of the childe the honour of the world and of conscience bee more pretious then all these 2 Chr. 34.17 if then we flagge not with hopefull Ioash when his Princes came to entice him If then we stick to a Command if then we cleave to a charge this is a signe of soundnesse indeed Triall 6 Sixtly if we cleave to Gods Commands prove it by this marke if we looke at a Command nakedly and cavil not against it by the opposition of it to other commands if we set not Gods Commands together by the ears as Saul did affirming that the killing of al sorted not with piety or charity if we leave the consequences of our obedience to God without pleading against them by arguments from absurdity or inconvenience it s a signe of a close heart Our nature is when wee see the sad command to lie before us to dispute against it thus What shall become of my people if I obey this command what shall become of the glory of God But honest obedience takes no more thought for God then he takes for himselfe if he commands us ought he cals not at our hands for more then he allowes us but takes that to his owne consideration and will have us let him alone with that Wee shall not need take thought for the good which is lost by our obeying But we must not doe evill that good may come of it To forecast the disasters which our obedience may inferre Note well is to take upon us the person both of the Subject and of the King if the King call for obedience let the inconvenience upon it lye upon him wee have done our duty Try we our selves then about this if we bee negotious and curious for God in a thing wherein wee are not called its thanklesse double diligence 2 Sam. 6.6 As we see Vzza in staying the Arke was more provident for God then hee required and therefore paid dearly for it though his intent was good So when we judge of obedience not by successe but by the word It was God his will that the Arke should be brought home by Saul though he slew the men of Bethshemesh for looking into it See 1 Chron. 12. Seventhly he obeyes closely who onely trusts God and licks himselfe Triall 7 whole upon him for any losse which he sustaines It trusts God to make good all she loses either for doing his will or for suffering for it An hypocrite upbraids God as for his doings Esa 58.6 so for his sufferings Matth. 25.24 Hee thinkes God to be bound and beholden to him for them and if hee either regard him not in the one or reward him not for the other hee thinkes himselfe wronged Contrarily a close obeyer counts his reward to stand in his obedience that God will account him worthy either to doe or suffer for him Acts 4.22.23 And if he lose either his will and base lusts by the one or his credit health wealth or friends by the other he lookes at the promise of an hundred fold grounded upon Gods alsufficiency and faithfulnesse A notable text we have 2 Chron. 25.9 when the Prophet forbad Amaziah to goe fight with his enemies his objection was That he had hired Souldiers of Israel for some thousands of Talents how should he doe for those The Prophet tells him The Lord could abundantly restore those Talents Brethren we would suffer perhaps for God but then as it was with Amaziah these Talents are the sorrow of all hence comes our unwillingnesse to suffer But as the Prophet said so say I The Lord can make them good doe but trust him Affliction is a bitter herbe but it beares a sweet flower and sweeter fruit Give the Lord thy Talents and thou shalt have an hundred fold backe againe These losses which thou fearest thy wife thy children thy contents give them up to God trust him with them and he will refine them all for thee that thou shalt receive them at his hands purer and cleaner not to say greater and fuller then ever before Those vapours which the Sunne exhales from the earth lose nothing by it for they are so altered in the ayre that they come downe againe more fruitfull upon the earth then ever So if God have once tryed thee in this furnace all shall come forth purer then ever The daughters of affliction are the fairest of all other There were no such women for beauty as Iobs three daughters were after his affliction He himselfe was purer and so was all he had Job ult and as affliction is a furnace so is it a banque Iob had twice as much after he had lost all as before No trade so gainfull as this of the Crosse a man that hath had the experience of it gaines twice so much nay an hundred times more then he had before I say not temporally and yet God is alsufficient but spiritually to all that suffer meekly and patiently Cast off therefore the clog of these Talents both from thy heart and thy heeles which do so hang on and oppresse and
faithfull will withdraw himselfe for feare as loth to be noted afraid of his betters willing to sleep in a whole skin Try our selves by this If wee obey closely wee will not strive to quench but to quicken up our selves to pick out the best services we can for God in our places As a good Justice will straine his authority and improve the Statute to the uttermost against Sabbath-breakers drunkards and glad that hee can thus expresse his heart Another will bite it in and conceale himselfe So Parents so Officers so rich ones doe that which others cannot not else alas what singular thing doe you Triall 15 To conclude an honest heart will not weare the Divels Irons nor bee dispensed with It is well principled shee hath a sound principle and is not like to hypocrites I may compare these to Children set to Schoole some onely to read write and cast account so farre onely as will serve them to keep their Shop-booke or make their reckonings straight Others to be Grammarians and so University Scholers to learne the Arts and Tongues that afterward their learning may principle and furnish them for all studies So is it with these The formall Professor if he can pray and tip his tongue with generall religion is at a point and lookes no further hee hath enough for the attaining of his owne ends and is never troubled about his course But the sound hearted Christian who strives to bring his whole heart and life under the Rule hath never done with himselfe but workes his generall principles into an infinite bredth of particulars How shall I delight in the Sabbath How shall I hold in my heart from giddinesse and loosnesse How shall I watch to God in my thoughts affections and conscience How shall I get strength against this secret lust and that defect in duty praying hearing How shall I use the world as if not or deny my selfe God sees these errours although man doth not Oh! the principle of grace exceeds the shifting skill of an hypocrite as much as heaven doth earth These are some among many others which may serve to try our hearts brethren about this waighty businesse Set we upon this work therefore and cease not till by all or by some of these trials thou canst although but weakly yet soundly judge thy selfe to be one that endeavours closely to obey And as thou shalt by these markes discover thy selfe to be so either bee comforted or admonished To the which ends the two uses following shall pertaine Thus much for the use of Examination Vse 4 Fourthly then let all such as can prove that they receive the word of Commands according thereto with all closenesse and faithfulnesse comfort Comfort themselves in their condition I have pressed the use in part before to wit in one of the Reasons To apply my selfe more particularly this I adde That thou who closest with Gods Commands maist be doubly encouraged In 2 respects The first First in respect of thy speciall serving of thy time Thou bearest witnesse to God and to his truths when thou seest the power of godlinesse borne downe in this base world know it that as the Lord will be slight with the slight so he will bee close with the close 1 Sam. 3. It is his promise That who honour him he will honour those that esteeme preciously of Commands and walke narrowly with him in their obedience he will esteem preciously of them they shall be of his Cabinet counsell they shall be privy to his secrets he will make knowne to them his waies Joh. 7.17 So that when he is aloofe to others they shall have familiar accesse yea if he give an account to any of his administrations they shall be sure to understand it Abraham was for no other cause called the friend of God If ye doe my will you shall be my friends more then my servants for friends know secrets Gen. 18.17.18 Read that Ezek 9. Where the Lord causes them that obeyed him but in one of his charges to mourne for the iniquity of the age to be marked with a penne and inke that he might know them for his jewells for his beloved ones And againe he tells that Church in Rev. 3.19 because she had kept the word of his patience that is clave to his truths in the times of danger Therefore he would save her from the temptation which should come upon the whole earth Close obeyers of God in loose times shall have close comfort in trouble They that stand out for God and will not oppose his glory to publicke sale and reproach hee will shrowd them in the day of trouble when others shall goe from chamber to chamber with terror to cover their heads from wrath A strange promise which we can hardly see how God should performe but yet God will doe it for such as preserve themselves unspotted in conscience and cleane from the infection of others In the meane time he will be found of them in their prayers close walkers with God shall have close audience close peace close comfort inward refreshings as Esay cap. 50. speakes read the 10. vers Who is he that feareth the Lord and obeyeth his voice Let him stay himself upon his God And therefore fearing God feare nothing else Although thou be scorned and pursued for this thy closenesse as a vile person yet let not this dismay thee for thou sufferest for God and as Saint Peter saith if for a good cause and cleaving to a word 1 Pet. 3.14 thou art faine to suffer take no thought in that behalfe let them who suffer for their misdeeds looke about them but as for thy part the Spirit of glory rests upon thee and although thy face shine not as an Angells like Stephens yet thou shalt as much convince thine enemies Act. 6. ult as hee did the same Spirit of courage and patience which upheld him shall sustaine thee till thou be redeemed fully from all adversity Heb. 10.37 Beare a while and he that commeth will come not tarry in the meane time side not with them who breake Commands and would have thee follow their examples But rather if this be to be vile be thou yet more vile and the more thou avilest thy selfe for God the more honourable he shall esteeme thee The like I may say of thy obeying commands in the generall practice of Christianity take comfort in this also Canst thou say The second Branch Rom. 7.22 that thou delightest in the law of God in thy spirit and inner man I tell thee thy estate is better then to be a Prince without it The Lord hath done great things for thee if it be thus and as Paul speakes even made thee for the very nonce 2 Cor. 5. Consider the dayes past Hath it alway beene thus with thee Couldest thou alway desire to be unclothed and clothed upon Couldest thou alway desire to dye daily through the rejoycing
in our Lord Jesus Was thy soule alway under the authority of the commands both of Law and Gospell with sweetnesse and delight Was it not rather bitternesse and gall Who then hath made his yoake easie Surely hee who deserves unspeakable thankes at thy hands for it And therefore bee also truly joyfull in thy portion The time was when such a liberty of going in and out with the Lord would have made thee leape and shalt thou now carry it about thee Delight in obeying the sad commands of God affords solid comfort without savour or sensiblenesse Perhaps thou wilt say I have my load another way a deale of base corruption hanging upon me to coole my courage Oh! but the Lord hath onely tryed thee thereby whether thou wilt forsake his yoke or no for thine owne ease he doth but put a back-bias upon thee that he might weigh thy motion to himselfe thou art not hereby hurt one whit but much bettered kept in awe and humblenesse before God whereas else thou wouldst be puffed up But is this or ought this to be any cause of thy discontent ought it not rather to encrease thy comfort when thou seest the Lord hath provided against the vanishing of it to make it durable Oh! bestow but a few houres in a weeke to thinke what a priviledge it is for dust and ashes nay a dunghill of rebellion a depth of treachery to be so changed as to come under the line of God and to be under his authority with a willing heart to make the love of Christ thy banner and to bee subject to God thine heaven Oh! to have thy will captived to his and to desire to know feare love close with nothing save his will what is it but the suburbs of heaven to feele a veine of sweetnesse to overrule thy soule and to cure that light giddy and frothy emptinesse of it to sadden and settle it under this power and kingdome of the Command To cast out the law of the members the law of a proud a stout self-loving and self-seeking heart to bee above these above corruption so that as they stincke in thy nostrills so shouldest thou in theirs Oh doe not count this a common priviledge rather nourish it hugge it in thy bosome beware lest any steale away thy Crowne And rather then thou shouldest live to see that day wherein the commands of Faith and Love should wax stale and unsavoury chuse to be taken out of this world that thine eyes may never see the evill of a revolting heart Heb. 3.12 to depart away from the living God Vse 5 Fifthly if we feele by due examining that our hearts warpe from Gods Commands Admonition Le ts of close walking with God must be abhorred then let us be admonished to amend it betimes and to search and cast out all such lets as do hinder and forestall in us this closing with God As it fares with hypocrites of whom I have spake that they have an habituall contrariety so it often falls out with the people of God that they meet with many actuall rubbes which oppose this subjection of spirit Not onely that old Adam which is ever present and when they would doe good still suggests evill and when they would shake off evill still hinders good as Rom. 7.14 But also they meet with one or other actuall affront in whatsoever command the Lord tenders unto them which dogges and disquiets them from the entry upon the worke What they are to the upshot thereof There bee as many Let. 1 subtilties of heart or stops of incumbrance as there are commands one tricke or other still is put upon us If the command be to bee unspotted of the world then the Divell comes in with the necessity of following my calling of close attending our worke and trades he tells us the world is hard and he that labours not must not looke for meat we must have no more then we toile for we must therefore do as others doe and sell as the market wee must make the most of our commodities and spare for a hard time and yet perhaps we be rich have not a childe or kinsman to bestow it on and so under this cloake breakes in abundance of worldlinesse not only to keep us from unspottednesse but even to drowne us in the world So let the Lord but Let. 2 presse us to suffer for a truth rather then betray it perhaps we answer we would faine doe it but then throng in such a number of feares how shall we endure persecution How shall we beare reproach Insulting of enemies imprisoment threats fines hard handlings How shall I beare the losse of my gifts credit favour of the world company contents How shall wife children be maintained family and charges supported defraied in this unthankfull world Thus while the meer outside of things is looked at the crosse is terrible all suffering is tedious and thus is it in all other commands carnall reason ease remissenesse and slacknes of spirit vanity infidelity and such other scurfe breaks in and then comes in a marveilous wearinesse of resistance of our lets and so a willingnesse to be foiled to give up our weapons and to resist no more as if we despaired secretly in our base spirits of ever recovering and therefore must give our selves some intermission and ease Sutable hereto is a third let when we think our strength not yet Let. 3 growne to such maturity as to digest so strong and beare so weighty commands as Gods puts upon us and so assume the whiles a kinde of exemption and liberty to our selves for the present So also when we Let. 4 nourish not the Promise with the Command without the which who doubts but it is burthensome But are carried by the present sense of our spirit how that welcomes or distastes it and goe no further and so marre the worke by ill handling Otherwhiles defiling and abusing Let. 5 our selves by some truths which serve us not to hatch us up to lasinesse and ease but to encourage us in weakenesse As that God passes by the transgressions of his people our perfection here is the sight of our infirmities No perfection is here to bee looked for Againe Let. 6 looking at the common guise of the world their formall loose religion and yet how they carry it out God suffering them and men admiring them or at least looking at the looser sort of Christians what largenesse and breadth they allow themselves Sometimes also by ill custome in lesser evils not espying how the Let. 7 heart waxes degenerate and unsavoury losing ground of close obedience daily And this is not the least let of all that men will not give Let. 8 themselves leasure of thoughts to meditate and so to equal their hearts to the sadnesse and closenesse of Gods Commands but goe on in their course and run their round as blinde Sampson in his mill not considering what wash way they make of Gods Commands
sinfull wretch yea obey me punctually closely universally yea my very thoughts that he might be a servant according to mine owne heart and whether I give a reason or no of my charges I thinke it equall that my inferiour doe nothing at all swerve from my commands Oh! what shall become of me for my loose heart thoughts affections conscience What shall I answer for my dead hard lazy empty senselesse sensuall heart in point of a tender chearfull and upright walking with thee I see Sauls subjects being charged to fast 1 Sam. 14.30 trembled to see his owne sonne to touch a little hony so farre were they from tasting it and shall the awe of a man in a trifle saving the vow so absolutely surprise their wills and yet the eternall and righteous will of God not be able to prevaile over me O Lord I deceive all that know me when I doe the materiall part of a command the life of the duty is absent when I doe the morall part the spirituall is far off and although I see and know it thus I am so chained under the law of my corruptions that the integrity the scope the fruitfulnesse the large-heartednesse of my obedience is not to be seene Oh! I offer sacrifices halt and blinde wanting heart liver and reignes I am so fraut with my selfe Rom. 7.23 and the command of evill that good is seldome present A lust hath a principle in me causing mee to love it to serve it to use all means to fulfill it to shunne studiously whatsoever might crosse it But I feele not that spirit of grace which should cause me to obey from a principle of sweetnes still there is somewhat which me thinks I chuse rather to doe and to be swaied by then the law of love to God for his love to my soule Oh! herein the Lord my God be mercifull to mee that wheras I have found as much mercy as any yet I have bowed to this lust and that and worship my owne fancies and am as like to do still if the awe of God lie not more closely upon my soule Oh! that this fire might alway so burne upon mine altar as might consume my drosse and put some life and courage into into mee to get out of this Circle in which the Devill hath conjured mee to walke deadly and basely towards the Commands of God! Nay which is worse O Lord I am growne to this point even to lie as a beast in a slow groning under her burden so lie I in a fullen discontent of heart at the Lord himselfe that he enlarges mee no better when as yet I nourish my selfe all the while in my ease and carnall distaste of his streight Commands Oh! me thinks my cursed heart because it cannot have her will of him could even tell him to his face That he is an hard Master and gathers where he strawed not Alas I consider not that he hath mee at the vantage because I have lost the grace of my creation nay abused a better grace of Mercy and therfore may justly be punisht for the least Rebellion And not only thus but from this stubborne heart of mine it comes that I set my sayles abroad and commit my selfe to winde and weather am not smitten when I breake all cords in two as Samson I am loose in Sabbaths in the curbing of my passions my vaine thoughts have their through-fare and lodge in mee and yet I am not troubled I swallow every gobbet and let it go Once I could straine at a gnat but now I devoure Camels and heare no more of them Oh! Lord I picke quarrels with those lawes which have formerly been equall to mee And more then these Lord I am growne to this sad point that the sence of a bit and bridle is by custome of loosenes quite slipt out of my mouth I begin to frame God to be such an one as my base heart could be content he were even a God like to my selfe who will neither do good Psal 50. nor evill whose threats are as the clappes of thunder without any stroke following I hope to go on in a Round and way of easy Religion and doing of one duty after another successively without strayning of a joint But as for any sadnes of Commands to weigh downe my spirit to solid feare being thus accustomed to a slight and vaine course I feele it not God helpe mee In all these respects what shall a poore soule O Lord do Conclusion of this branch with it selfe What O my deer God shall bring me back againe after all these desperate revolts unto thee I wonder that I should not be wholy left to utter woe and open offences I know nothing in my selfe why Satan should not have mee at such a bay as to cause me to depart from God grossely and generally aswell as in these secret rebellions For I waxe weary of thy yoke and am content that others should abide the heate of thy worke and my selfe be released O Lord I am so farre from pleasing my selfe in this state that rather then I would be under the misery of my slightnesse I could wish thou woldst cast some other unpleasing chaines upon mee some stinging crosse some corrasive to eate out my dead flesh And as untoward as I am to suffer if I deceive not my selfe I could wish the sweet fruit or such a course with some pinch to my flesh rather then thus giddily to provoke thy Majesty by the transgression of thy Commands But thirdly and above all this is exhortation to all Gods people Branch 3 to sadden their hearts and to lie under the Authority of Commands for Conscience sake A most sollemne point above all that I can say to urgeit As before I spake when Iacob went to Luz God cast a feare upon the nations that they durst not stirre a joint against him Oh! Genes 35.5 such a feare shouldst thou beseech God to cast upon thy soule in secret Feare of God besetting the heart a great meane to keep close to God wheresoever thou becommest that it may hem in and compell thee to obey As it s sayd of the clowd which filled the Temple and caused the people to feare the presence of God who was in the midst therof so should this cloud alway lie upon thy soule to smite an awe into thy soule of offending Theris is a base spirit in us it is not love alone which can long hold us within bonds Heb. 12. end Therfore we had need as it is Heb. 12. end to hold fast such grace as may cause us to walke in reverence and holy feare Deut. 32.46 Moses summing up the contents of that Swans song of his in two words tells the people Set your hearts to all the words of this booke which I testifie to you this day that is the law of the covenant it s a sadde law sadly therfore set your hearts to it He whom wee have to do with
thee The third examples Psal 16.2 Psal 119.4 Thirdly its excellent for us to turn our eyes off from all slighters and paltrers with God abhorring their declinings Psal 101. But to bend the eye of the soule towards them that are singular in grace and close obeying So David tells us That he set such before his eyes till hee was ravisht with them Doubtlesse saith he they goe not astray from any commands As if he should say oh that I were such an one With the base and formall a man should soon learne that trade But the watchfull the wakefull the close the conscionable will soone teach us their practise so that it will be a shame unto us to be otherwise and it will fixe the naile of commands deep into our hearts as with an hammer Eccles ult The fourth prayer Psal 119.27 The fourth is Prayer which is the constant helpe which Gods people have alway used to ease themselves by at this pinch David prayes God to teach him his Law graciously marke graciously that is in the sweetnesse ease delight and reward of it not in the toile and difficulty thereof Psal 119. So againe Oh that mine heart were directed to keepe thy commands They that feele the true weight of them will groane under their owne weaknesse and pray for strength Hence that holy prayer of Saint Augustine Give strength to doe what thou biddest and bid what thou wilt Turne all Gods promises and covenants into prayers for there is no one command urged upon the soule but it hath a promise annexed Oh Lord thou hast said thou wilt encline me to keep thy Law Thou hast promised to write it and engrave it in my fleshly tables to cause me to walke in all thy Statutes Oh doe it Lord Open mine eyes that I may see the wonders of thy Lawes their perfection and excellency then take the stone out of my heart and make it tender they may pierce into it with feare and awe Helpe Lord my fruit is come to the birth and there is no strength to bring forth Fifthly get humblenesse of spirit and that will equall Gods righteousnesse Murmure not fret not at the closenesse of them for that satisfies not God But be as a worme before him The fifth rule Humility and tremble at his voice as we see the poore wormes come shaking and trembling out of the earth when they feele the feet of any treading the earth Esay hath this speech in one place You have made me to serve by your rebellions A proud heart makes God serve base flesh An humble heart which knowes it selfe serves God and is glad that it may be accepted In Psal 2.12 we see how base men take upon them But whence is it Oh pride makes them cast away all the cords of God from them Pride makes them to say Our tongues are our owne what Lord shall controll us A swelling proud heart will not endure any pinch of Law more then it selfe likes But the humble wil take Law at Gods hands gladly and concurre with him Hast thou O Lord bidden me deny my selfe Abstaine from fleshly lusts Possesse my soule with patience my vessell in holinesse and honour It s just Lord thy will is a rule I desire not to see beyond it Proud servants love a faire Livery and great wages better then close commands But the humble will take any worke upon them and say it s their object Beware then of a sullen queazy coy and proud heart Sixtly marke closely the threats of God against each rebellion The sixt rule Observe Gods Judgments and the verifying thereof in experience both in Scripture and daily This will cut the combe of presumption For who have offended God and prospered It s a maxime lot upon it whether thou see it so or not be sure it will be so As that old Prophet told his sonnes 1 Kings 13. Bury me in the grave of the man of God for all which hee hath said against this place shall surely come to passe To get a weighty heart under threats giving them a being in the soule through faith is the onely way for Commands to take effect For God hath fortified the one with the other if the fence be broken down the corne lieth open to the stroyance of all beasts Observe closely how God plagues drunkards swearers adulterers Sunday breakers and the like and adde the patternes of the Scripture oft pressed by Peter and Iude that wee may not thinke their damnation sleepes else we will bee Atheists 2 Pet. 3. Epist Jude Psal 50. and frame God like our selves But this will awe us Such and such ventured so and so but they paid sweetly for it if we be content to share with them wee may side with them but not else For Gods wrath will not rot in the sky Eccles 7. Deferring of judgement sets the heart of a sinner yea hardens it to rebellion but beleeving it workes feare and prevention as in Noah Heb. 11. Heb. 11. Seventhly deny thy selfe The seventh rule Selfe-deniall Selfe and God will runne in a stream a while as filthy dung and pure apples in a river till the one be scattered from the other So our own ends and Gods make a poor shift to go together a while till trouble and losses reproach and pursuit divide them but then they sever Sure it is That man who hath no other obedience for God save that which will goe in his owne streame of ease safety content quiet and welfare will abandon God when he is tried Therefore he that meanes to walk closely with God let him shake off such weights as these The like I may say of such Heb. 12. as dare adventure to suffer in Gods cause upon hope to lick themselves whole by carnall supplies No no All such build upon the sands of their owne false hopes the Lord will scatter them I deny not but that God is all-sufficient to all his and hath promised not to faile them yea to give them an hundred fold requitall But this is to them that walke uprightly Mal. 3. Gen. 17.1 not to hirelings who obtrude their service and know no requitals but carnall Such it is just with God to leave to their owne shifts 1. Pet. 3. even to cry a confederacy to feare the feares of the wicked and to put forth their hand unto evill because of their afflictions They will buy out the aire of a prison but their owne aire shall choke them onely they who can trust God in his promise and are content to take his pay in good worth what ever it bee such God will not forsake And such onely are meet persons to obey because they are armed 8. Rewards Lastly digest truly the reward of close obeying not onely in heaven when it shall be knowne to men and Angels who they are though unknowne to the world But even here alas Gods peoples right hand knowes not what
so mistakes and misconstrues must either deceive himselfe in looking for more or defraud himselfe in looking for lesse then the promises containe in them What a continuall vexation is it then to erre about the extent of those things wherein to erre is above all other errors most dangerous and remedilesse Many more reasons might bee added but the substance thereof will occurre otherwise Vse 1 I proceed to the Uses First this point is Terror to all in generall who doe not beleeve the whole body of truth according to it selfe Of Terror Branch 1 without the which promises cannot possibly be construed aright Now alas Truths of God must not be taken by tradition and prejudice but from the whole body of truth beleeved as Gods what a common error is this Who beleeves or deducts promises from the rocke of truth as marble pillars digged out of the whole quarry Men take the whole truth of God for the most part from the tradition of men from the interpretation of others which is no other save upon trust as their Parents Masters or teachers have instil'd it into them and I grant its meet to be so at first for so those Samaritans John 4. at first harped upon the truths preacht by Christ by the information of the woman But they did not rest there till by her they were drawne to heare him speake himselfe and then they told her plainly that they resolved their faith not into her report but Christ himself It is with many of us as with Papists who use the Church to bee the principle of their faith whereas she should onely be a guide an informer and directresse It s not to be doubted but the Church is the preserving and sustaining pillar of truth in point of guiding the soule to the truth for had not the Church nursed us taught and train'd us up where had we been But this must not be enough to stablish us except we meane to disguise our selves and bewray our sandy foundation when tempests and troubles shall try what is in us no we must put a difference betwixt our drawing to the truth and our beleeving the truth and never rest till the bright morning starre of the Word the Lord Jesus hath risen in our hearts who will cast such a through light into them as shall shine from East to West Matth. 24. and enlighten us in all truth yea lead us into all truth by his Spirit Churches judgement must guide us principle us in the truths of Scripture that Spirit I meane which assists his word in the hearts of all humble and teachable ones This will cause us not to take here a shred and there another such a command or such a promise as pleases us not knowing what to make of the rest but to set open our whole hearts unto the whole truth the whole body thereof that it may enter into us possesse and dwell in us plentifully in every part it will present to our eyes that God of truth speaking in his word and piercing thereby into the very marrow and bones dividing the thoughts and carrying the soule into the streame of that excellency of his whereby we may be convinced of his truth it will shew us the truth of the written word in the eternall word of the Father full of Grace and Truth the way the truth and the life in whom who so beleeves to salvation doth also beleeve all and every truth which ever came out of his mouth and wee shall no more doubt of that then of Christ himselfe in whom all truth is established and gathered as the whole verge of a garment into one knot so that as no man bids us to prove that its day light when the Sunne shines so wee shall need no proofe or demonstration of any particular part of the word having embraced Christ that eternall word of God into our bosomes because he brings all his truths with him and having himselfe fulfilled that one great promise of his incarnation and redemption hath also in that made good all the other promises and made them Yea and Amen to the praise of his glory Oh therefore The Spirit of Christ must be our first planter of truth in the soule how wofull is the condition of such as forsake this way of faith and goe to dig pits which will hold no water boasting that nothing shall ever pull them away from the truth no feares persecutions change of times and I know not what away with thy vain brags If thou hast not first planted thy selfe upon Jesus the body of truth thy particular knowledge of truths will vanish of it selfe for he who gathers not with Christ scatters but how much more when thy slight building shall be shaken with crosses and enemies Therefore gaster your selves from such frothy bottomes as will deceive you get truth first planted in your soules with the love of it for some reall and maine good which it hath done you Terrour to all Popish and blinde maintainers of truth upon error and opinion and when Christ shall have brought his truth with the saving comfort of it into you it will hold your hearts close to it never to goe from it it shall keepe your hearts and mindes in the knowledge of God it shall discover to you that rich hoord of promises which are hid in Christ out of whom they are but as the sound of many waters and vanish as fast as they come This will teach us a rule of conceiving truth aright This will scatter all mists of error darkenesse mistakes from the minde and purifie the heart by the obeying of the truth as Saint Peter speakes 1 Pet. 1.22 2 Pet. 1.19 yea it will be a light shining in a darke place and guiding the feet into the way of peace Abhorre then a patched confused knowledge of truth destitute of the truth in Jesus as thou wouldest abhor and loath utter blindenesse and arrant ignorance it selfe in the highest degree For indeed setting aside the shew of it it s but cousen germane to it who abhors not a misbeleeving Turke or Jew as a very infidell Who loaths not an Hereticke Papist Pelagian or a Schismaticke as we doe misbeleevers Yea in some respect worse because they are so leavened that it is easier to draw a Pagan not prejudicate to the faith then such It s true that the other have more of truth in them then the other But they doe so corrupt confound and misapply truths they maintaine not truth in the accord and the harmony of truth therefore they hold truth rather to overthrow truth then to establish it and in effect are greater enemies to the promises and to the truth in Jesus then they can seeme friends to some kindes of truth whatsoever their abettors and patrons would or can speake in their defence So much for this first Secondly and more particularly its terror to all audacious and impudent Branch 2 spirits of hypocrites Of
with it passe it by Their severall objections have been answered before Now I onely presse reproof upon them Light is sowne for them Psal 97.11 but they will not see it but goe on with their burden as if they would offer their eares to be boared for slaves As those mentioned last are in one extreame and snatch at that which is denyed them for stollen waters are sweetest so these cannot make use of that which belongs unto them when yet it is pind on their sleeves To whom I say as Esay did to Ahaz when he refused to aske a signe Is it not enough for you to grieve men Gods Prophets but you will grieve my God also What Are you too well offered Esay 7.13 and cannot see when you are well used nor discerne your friends from your foes Doe you thinke it is enough to nod your head as Asses doe at a promise beleeving it onely as a tale told but with-draw the affiance of your soules from it Is it enough for you to moane and complaine to desire and mourne Are these faith Is it better for you to shrugge in the cold weather and to wish a fire yet in the meane time to starve for lacke of that which is offered you To goe naked and let the garment lye by unoccupied Oh! checke your selves bitterly for this irregularity whatsoever the cause be whether unworthinesse or sloath or sullennesse it is not according to a promise that I am sure of Oh! get your soules out of this emptinesse into the life and marrow of a truth Learne the truth as it is in Jesus that you put him on being naked Not to marry the promise being faire for it is contrary to a promise But to beleeve and to cast your selves upon the Word to rid your selves of staggering accords most kindly with it So much for this Branch 2 Of Reproofe Ephes 3.16 Psal 78.19 Secondly this reproves all limiters and restrainers of promises for that is not according to a promise The truth in Jesus is the largenesse of it Its length depth breadth height all dimensions are in it Thus those Israelites straitned the holy One of Israel Can hee prepare a Table in the Wildernesse This is our cursed spirit when a promise seemes true in the generall yet in the particular not so as Martha confesses the power of Christ to bee able to doe all things Joh. 11.39 but when it came to the point of raising her brother then she said Lord hee hath been buried foure dayes he stinkes What a base carnall limitation of Almightinesse is this Limiters and restrainers of promises reproved See what a contrariety is in our hearts to a promise according to the extent of it As the Cable seemes to a Needles eye so doth all the points of an extended promise seeme to our hide-bound hearts Gods enlargements worke by contraries and make us the more straitned as in the point of the same or the kinds of promises and so the rest Now I thinke God hath heard my prayer but how long he will that I saith one know not it seems too much to presse hard upon him so long so often for so many favours True if he were a man Jer. 2.13 Esay 26.3 Heb 13.8 or a dry pit but hee is a God a fountaine of living waters Men will bee weary of doing good but it is Gods nature to doe it as the streames to flow Who thinkes it a wrong to a fountaine to draw from it daily Doth it not come alway more fresh and sweet It is the honour of a Prince to look at himselfe in giving not at others The ofter thou commest to a promise Sundry instances of it the welcomer It is according to the truth as it in Jesus Oh saith one I have trusted God for pardon but as for purging my corruptions of pride ease vanity the world or if so yet for purging or weakning this or that beloved lust 1 Kings 20.28 cannot beleeve it Why Is God the God of the valleyes onely not of the Hills also So saith another I can trust God for heaven but not for outward things for my selfe but not for my children while I live but not when I must dye loath I am to heare of that or for the present so farre as I finde my needs but what may hereafter betide mee in my name health state safety liberty God knowes Doth God know and dare not you beleeve Is this according to a promise and the extent thereof Truly Popery cares for no faith we have all a Pope in our belly that 's unbeleefe we go farre onward in Religion But we have hearts which shrinke in the wetting and hold not out in breath and pace with promises grudge and cannot beteame our selves the wealth and fulnesse of God lest we should be compleate in him and too wealthy by him Ionah grudged promises to others but we are envious to our owne soules I remember what once a devout â—otary prayed Lord saith he grant me my petition this once I come not often to trouble thee and on condition thou wilt grant me this I will never trouble thee more Oh base wretch Is thine eye evill because Gods is good Thirdly this reproves all such as stretch out promises beyond their Branch 3 bounds and set them on their owne Tentors till they rend them Enlargers of promises beyond their due bounds to be reproved They could beteame the temporall promises of God to themselves and the Church for deliverance and redemption from all enemies for peace protection and welfare were unlimited But those which touch their souls especially to kill their lusts they care not how narrow they frame them even as the bed and covering of which Esay speakes that is so narrow that it will not wry them warme They beleeve not promises as they are but fancy them They chuse rather that the bush would not burne at all then that it might not consume in burning where God straitens they enlarge Shalt thou teach Jesus how to frame his truths Surely this kind of receiving of truths is not according to Jesus and the honour of Jesus but according to Self and carnall selfe-love Thou maist as well take upon thee to alter the whole frame of Scripture as of promises for God hath bounded them and their land-marks cannot be removed Apply thy self unto them as they are for they will not accommodate themselves to thy humor thy seasons or contents Fourthly this is reproofe to all who beleeve not promises according Branch 4 to the intention of them Not to beleeve a promise according to the intention of it is sinfull They make them weaker and insufficienter then they are This doth intollerably trench upon the honour of Jesus this of all the rest is farre from embracing the truth as it is in Jesus What is it which Jesus hath not done or suffered to stablish and ground truthes And yet how basely doe we
shall fall into some scandall 3. Fear of falling into some scandall and not persevering and never persevere but he who hath delivered will deliver from every evil way and work He wil preserve the souls of his Saints he wil write his law in their heart they shall not depart from his feare I am perswaded nothing shall separate c. He is faithfull who hath promised Sometime sicknesse poverty debt disquiets and how then In six troubles he will keepe thee and in the seaventh that it shall not oppresse Hee put his hand under my head and will make my bed in sicknesse when I was weake the Lord holpe me Againe the soule complaines 4. Sicknesse debt enemies unfaithfull friends and the like But I have enemies Well but if thy wayes please the Lord he can make them thy friends If not though an Army of them compasse mee about yet will I not be afraid But perhaps friends faile and turne unfaithfull Well yet Mica 7. When I dare trust no friend nor wife I dare trust the Lord. When my father and mother forsooke me but the Lord took me up Can a mother forsake the childe of her womb Yet will not the Lord. He will sustaine and redeeme thee In all their afflictions hee was afflicted Esay 63.9 Oh! but they prosper and I decay They beare all the stroke and my cause is sentenced Stay a while and their green Bay tree shall wither True it is it is long first Psal 73. Psal 37.6 But fret not thy selfe roll thy way on Jehova and be doing good and hee will effect it Hee will bring forth thy righteousnesse as the morning Hee will plead thy cause Mica 7. When there is casting down thou shalt see a lifting up and hee shall save the humble person Job 22.29 But thou wilt say My prayers be not heard Not presently but it is that thou mightst pray oftner and earnestlier that so God may deliver thee from that thou fearest and his grace may bee sufficient for thee Thou wilt still object 5. When prayer is not heard My troubles are as no bodies secret and stinging unknowne to any But not unto the Lord whose eyes are in every corner of the earth and knows the heart and reynes yea the most hidden sorrowes that he may be strong with the weak and contrite ones Oh! but I am darke for lack of faith Yet let him that is in darknesse and seeth no light trust upon God Esay 50. But I want meanes The Lord is my support Psal 23.3 leads me to the pastures and streames and when I am lost yet sustaines me So that although the Olive and Vine should faile though there should be no Calfe in the stall nor Sheep in the flocke Habak 3. yet will I make the Lord my salvation But my temptations and assaults by Satan are fierce to Atheisme to deny providence the Scriptures and such like molestings It they be tedious they shall bee short and faith shall quench the most fiery darts 6. Temptations and fierce assaults of Satan Matth. 5.12 1 Pet. 4. But he stirres up his instruments to vex and pursue Well they may cast thee into prison tenne dayes but hold out and I will give thee a Crowne of life Gods hook is in their nostrills Blessed art thou when thou art persecuted for the name of Christ The Spirit of glory shall rest upon thee Fear not man whose breath is in his nostrills Esay 40.7 But I feare evill times will plucke me from my stedfastnesse No Thousands and tenne thousands shall fall on both sides but thou shalt goe free in the midst Matth. 24. If possible the Elect should be deceived But it s not possible I have prai'd for thee that thy faith faile not The just shall have a shining light upon their pathes Luke 22.31 Oh! but perhaps I am in perplexing straits what course to take Well but a voice shal be behind thee and say This is the way walke in it Oh but my sorrowes are the miseries of the Church Esay 30. The gates of hell shall not prevaile against her Be of good courage I have overcome the world The ship that Christ is in Matth. 18. John 13. ult Mica 7.8 cannot be drowned He will rebuke the waves and cause a calme Rejoyce not over me O mine enemy for when I am down I shall rise Christ hath naild my enemies to his crosse led captivity captive Esay 26.1 Salvation hath the Lord set for walls and bulwarks Esay 13.5 God will defend Jerusalem Light is sowne for the Righteous Beare the yoke because thou hast sinned and the Lord shall breake the decree Mica last and tread them as mire in the streets In the meane time Jer. 46. I will correct them in measure and Esay 28. Did I correct him as I corrected them who afflicted him No but in measure But how shall I doe when the King of feares comes The sting of death is sin which being taken out thou shalt triumph 2 Cor. 15. O death where is thy sting But I have poore children to provide for Well Exod. 20. The Lord shewes mercy to thousands of them that love him And the children of the righteous inherit the earth Psal 25. But when I am dead what shall become of me Take no thought Esay 57. They shall rest in their graves perfumed and softned by the grave of Christ and be purged by it from corruption Their names shall be sweet on earth as the pretious ointment And their soules shall reigne with God in full perfection of happinesse above sinne sorrow and all enemies till it shall joine with the beloved body againe at the day of Christ to enjoy in heaven perfect consummation These and such like promises let every poore soule cull out for herselfe out of the treasury of the Scriptures and enlarge them to her owne use that it may goe well with her and that the promises may be beleeved according to their extent for this is the misery of the soule that God hath fulnesse for her in his promises but shee will not see it acknowledge it embrace it accommodate it but let them lye rusting there without regard as men use to suffer their Armour to doe because they have no use of it Thus much shall serve for a direction in this kinde and for this Use as also for the whole Doctrine and former part of this verse containing Naamans obedience Now I come to the latter part of the verse The last generall His successe Three things in it which containes the immediate successe of his washing And that is first the expression That his flesh came againe c. Secondly the cure it selfe He was cleane And thirdly now we heare no more of his former distempers all are vanisht and washt away with his leprous skin in Jorden These points I note here As for the remoter consequences following upon this cure afterward I shall come to them in
beleeving of his promises Fourthly the Lord doth thus for the continuall strengthening of his Reason 4 poore servants in better and closer clasping to his promises For the strengthning of his servants 2 Tim. 1.12 and that by daily experience growing in the soule hereby it might come to this pitch to say I know in whose lappe or bosome I have put my pledge I know in whom I have beleeved I goe not upon had I wist but upon undeceivable grounds Thus as the wicked through unbeleefe withdraw themselves more and more to perdition so the faithfull follow faith to the preserving of the soule Heb. 10.38 they grow more and more rooted therein by such triall of faith they grow from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 Eph. 3.16.17 Matth. 11.29 rooted and established and not easily puft off by every winde of error feare temptation they grow from beleeving one to beleeve more from generall promises to speciall from spirituall to temporall from promises in peace to promises in and under crosses darke ones deep ones long ones so that no estate service occasion triall waxes strange to them but familiar and at last the yoke of God waxes easie and his burthen light Fifthly because the Lords performances or purposes at least to Reason 5 performe are the causes in a sort of his promises It s not so with men Because his promises come from purpose of doing good They promise apace but their spirit being backward in love and entire wel-wishing to the good of others come short of their owne promises Now the Lord in his intention or purpose to doe good to his Church and People doth thereby draw his heart to make promises that so the good things which he wisheth them may be presented to them before hand they may know that in meer faithfulnes he binds himself to them not to strengthen himselfe but their weaknesse rather in beleeving Now because the Lord out of an Idea and foresight of his owne free grace purposing to doe good to his doth breake into promises thence it is that promises are easie to performe with him Men are rashly drawne either by their owne suddaine pangs or by others motion to make promises not knowing their owne spirits and scantlings of affection and so in coole bloud they undoe that which in hot they made But because Gods purposes strong and firme caused him to promise therefore the same Spirit moves him also to performe Againe though men meane well in promising yet inability oftentimes causes them to breake against their wills whereas in God purpose of love and power of hand to performe are alway equall so that nothing can come between barke and tree nothing can set his promises and performances together by the eares Let the reader looke back into the point of Faith where I have mentioned abundance of excellent Attributes in God every of which are objects of Faith and means to strengthen it and especially his faithfulnesse Reason 6 Sixtly and lastly the Lord sometimes performes his promises rather with the better then otherwise Because he lookes not at us but his owne bounty because he promiseth not according to what the narrow necke or vessell of the soule is capable of but what his bountifull heart can beteame it Promises would prove but barren and bare matters if so be our bucket could reach their bottome But since the Lord promises according to the extent of his owne bounty therefore he performes so also whether the soule conceive so or not What heart can conceive the unspeakable good things prepared by God for such as love him Eye hath not seene eare hath not heard nor hath it entred into mans heart to contain them 1 Cor. 2.9 yet all these are inclosed in the promise and though the soule at first obtaining of pardon see not what God includes in it to be in time accomplished but is glad of a present supply of her need yet the Lord who gives his Christ the knot of promises all at once is content to keepe touch with the soule and in due time to reach her out all sorts of them according as her need calls for in duties in wants in temptation in conflict with her lusts 1 Cor. 1.30 or in affliction Then he makes Christ Righteousnesse to be Christ Wisdome Sanctification and Redemption The lesse the soule looked for it the welcommer it is when it comes It s not so with base men If the party promised unto conceive not the extent of the promiser the promiser thinkes he hath quit himselfe well in concurring with the expectation of the other although he shorten his owne intents But this base falshood of restraint is farre off from God and therefore he performes that which often is unexpected as well as what is And so much shall serve for Reasons Now to the Limitations Limitations of the point And they are sundry These three following may give a taste of the rest which because they availe much for the due qualifying of the Doctrine therefore I will mention them and the proper uses flowing from them and so proceed to the other uses belonging to the Doctrine The first limitation is That God though he alway performe his promise yet not alway in that very kinde which the soule perhaps seekes and claimes The soule lookes at one kinde the Lord lookes at another It is enough with him God performs promises alway yet not in that very kinde which the soule expects And why that he alway keeps touch in one kinde or other though he doe not fulfill it as the soule would And good reason since the scope of fulfilling a promise being the speciall good of the soule that beleeves it and the Lord himselfe being fitter to judge of that then the soule it selfe can Therefore it is meet that we leave it to him in what kinde he will heare and performe We in the meane time cannot be losers because the Lord doth not neglect to heare us in our kinde for lacke of love but through â—bundance of wisedome If wee can beleeve that the kinde which hee answeres us bee questionlesse best for the present condition in which the soule stands then may shee bee as well satisfied in Gods way as her owne For example There is a promise Psal 50.15 that if wee call upon God in the day of affliction he will heare us and we shall praise him Upon this the soule under any yoke of body or minde sues to God upon his promise to ease that yoke that she may praise him But the Lord being wiser then she holds on the yoke still howbeit he doth it not as forgetfull of his promise but because he sees there be other graces to be set on worke in the poore soule as breaking of heart patience further faith selfe-deniall which would not worke kindly if the yoke were off If he meant onely to exercise thankfulnesse in the soule he would deliver it but he judgeth the other
as you know And so I say to us Levit. 26.21 If wee walke contrary toward the Lord hee will walke contrary to us trust to it And that not onely in case of foule revolts if wee should play the Adulterers Oppressors Blasphemers c. Such sinnes wee dare not meddle with haply for the lowd cry and inward wasting of conscience Heb. 10.37 But yet perhaps we dare withdraw our selves from God by unbeliefe fall out of love with his promises wee dare forgoe our joy and delight which we have had in his presence Jer. 2.13 and runne to pits which will hold no water as if the fountaine were unpleasant Wee dare suffer that pretious seed of Life to dye if it may dye in us and walke deadly coldly basely in our course We dare allay and forsake our first love to God and zeale to his truth wee dare run to the course of this declining formall saplesse and powerlesse world and shake off all spirituall closenesse and communion with God and yet wee thinke to doe well But know it this is the great quarrell of all Levit. 26.25 I meane the quarrell of Gods covenant God will avenge it sadly his soule shall have no pleasure in such Lay it to your hearts brethren and know the performance of promises is the immediate way whereby the Spirit of Grace conveyes the presence of God to his servants Wee have no voice to heare nor sights to see save the voyce and light of the promises If we can cleave to them we hold the Lord and hee is present in our soules as he was to Paul in that sad darknesse Acts 27.23 But if wee shake off the life of faith where is our title to the performing of promises or where is our right to the presence of God I remember what the Lord tells those Israelites in the Wildernesse I will send my Angell before you Exod. 23.20 and he shall carry you forth in your journey But take heed you grieve him not for he will not spare you but withdraw his presence from you So say I We would claime Gods presence and God must bee our God and performe all promises as fast as we gape after them But in the meane season we leave the condition at large Some of us have formerly been zealous yea suffered for God and lost our credit our goods our liberties for him Here was life and power but now wee hold but a carkasse of the old temper a meere name that we live wee are growne Polititians civilians close professors wise in our way rest in the fagge end of formality and common worship And what thinke we May we be as bold upon performance of promises as formerly May we chalenge the presence of God in his Word as formerly No no others of us dare be forward with God as Iona was nourish our spirits in anger Jona 1. 4. let the Sunne goe downe upon it rage and raile like mad men in our moods And if we be told of it wee will defend it we will be so for we say our wrong was reall and flesh and bloud cannot beare it What Will you flye from God and looke that hee should follow you up and downe Judg. 19.3 as the foolish Levite did his whorish Concubine Others of us dare abuse the Sabbath or else have no delight in it speaking our owne words Others cannot be rated off from the creature but run after our profits wills vanities pleasures fashions and cocker our children therein without checke Others will take the uttermost of our liberties and goe upon the brinke Others regard not our families set not up the worship of God there or pray for fashion Others are growne just to the frame of the times and give God so much and no more then the common sort doe and yet passe well And so I might be endlesse But know it Brethren Gods promises are like himselfe and are faithfully performed on his part howbeit if this be our frame we shall finde a change and hee will take in his Sun-shine we shall not finde his presence as in former times to us Job 6. and throughout Did the Lord withdraw himselfe from holy Iob while he walked in uprightnesse and eclipse his presence and promises from him write bitter things against him compasse him about with terrors hide his face and all justly even to humble him more deeply and prevent that which else prosperity might have bred in him Wonder not then brethren if the Lord withdraw himselfe from us and turne away his performing of promises into breach of covenant when hee meets with such scurfe as this in our hearts and lives And let the use of the point in Gods name be this which I pray us all to oberve that henceforth we cease to wonder if wee finde the Lord otherwise towards us then formerly so long as the quarrell of his Covenant depends I grant that there were never any dayes such as ours in point of complaint of Gods absence darknesse and not performing of promises But withall consider when were there such wofull dayes of Revolts Apostasies from God and the power of his truth as now Each face is pale and each hand is upon the pained side But it is rather because men may not have their will of God and keep him close in performance of promises when yet their lives swarme with all abominations Should I not be avenged of such time-servers and hypocrites as these saith the Lord in the Prophet doe you wonder if hee have hidden himselfe Esay 1. and doth count you as you are refusing to performe promises No no wonder not wonder rather if he should looke not for it till you repent If he darken himselfe in the chiefe promise of pardon of peace and comfort in conscience or in point of his Spirit of presence and the graces of it as humblenesse and patience love and mercy if he shorten you in the beauty of your conversation that your lives are not so sweet Spirituall penalties attend spirituall sins your light not so cleare as in time past if hee absent himselfe from you in his Ordinances restraining the influence of them suffering them to be dark and fruitlesse if he leave you in your companies to bee unprofitable in your liberties to bee carnall in your solitarinesse to be dead hearted if he harden your hearts and cause you to erre from his waies so that all your praiers fastings sacraments covenants should come forth at your nostrils as irkesome as those Quales did I say wonder not it s but righteous Make this use of it Vse Breakers of covenant with God shall finde God breake with them to abhorre boldnesse with God in challenging promises to be performed when you breake the condition Rather enter into your soules and search out the cause of the Lords absence saying it was not wont to be thus that thou shouldest breake promise thus Lord and leave me
and looke not that they should drop into thy bosome or be let downe in an engin all on the suddaine upon thee thou knowest not how quicken up thy faith daily else performances will prove but dead ware and according to thine unbeleefe 3. Murmuring so shall it be unto thee Thirdly murmure not when promises answer not thine expectation If crossed in our marriages in our children in the successe of our labours if debts pursue us if crosses follow us if wee be not presently answered in our fasting and prayers but still our hearts be obstinate and hardned then we fall to mutter against God as if he were unfaithfull but never enter into our selves to see how we warpe from the promise and go to worke with our owne tooles Ex. 14.2 4. Some grosse sin Fourthly lay no stumbling blocke of our owne iniquity in our owne way to stop the performing of promises Every loose common and hollow professor let him decline never so much from God in his course yet will boast as much of promises as others and will not be beaten off Judg. 19.20.21 ca. As those Israelites in fighting with the Benjamites would needs goe forward in the revenge of their sinne and lookt that God should assist them but never saw the sinne which still lay underneath their Idolls I mean which cost them the losse of forty thousand souldiers ere they got the victory Men think if they should be stript of Gods promises they were forlorne folk but in the mean time they walke not close with God keep not touch with him in their covenants dare play most unfaithfull parts with men in their practice and thus runne into arrearedges never dreaming that thereby they forfeit their right to performances but hold up their heads with boldnesse and think that as good bloud runnes still in their veines as in the best beleevers 5. Limiting of God Fifthly limit not God in his performances we care not how little we have for our money so we may have our humor pleased in some carnall content we can forgoe spirituall so we may have our turn served in some one promise we have enough and can give God over for a good while after and think much to hold on with Gods bounty because our strait hearts are pincht with the exercise of faith and therefore its just with God to punish our basenesse and unbeteaming spirits 6. Error of the wicked Sixtly beware of the error of the wicked who goe to worke by sense and esteeme Gods performances according to the outward meanes and possibilities which they have to compasse their ends God is but a formall notion upon point with them If thou looke upon the world thou losest the sight of God and wilt turne Atheist Seventhly beware of oversight and inobservance of promises God performes daily and hourely one or other to thee or thine to body or soule in blessings or in corrections yea more then hee is bound to But thou gapest after some greater or some other things 7. Unobservance so overseest and passest by such as are before thee and thereby stoppest the course of thanks and of blessings because thou seest not how many waies Gods performances lye Be quicke fighted in observing mercies and say with the Church Lam. 3.23 The compassions of the Lord are renued every morning great is thy faithfulnesse An observing heart encourages the Lord to performe more and he cannot abide an heart that pockets all and puts them into a bottomlesse purse Hag. 1.8 8. Curiosity and censure with others Eightly shunne curiosity and propensenesse to challenge the Lord when his publicke government and administrations please us not To these many moe might be added as sloth and ease worldlinesse formality in worship little meditation and such like They procure a dead life a barren heart an uncomfortable course Remember it must be an heart qualified for the nonce which must walke with God in his promises and performances It must be a cleare humble watchfull innocent and selfe-denying spirit not tainted with il custome and such shall have no cause to complaine of God nor be sent empty away So much for this Use Eightly this point is Exhortation to all beleevers and that in sundry particulars Vse 8 First that they revive in themselves the former Doctrine that is Exhortation that they take measure of Gods promises to the full that since God is so faithfull Branch 1 a performer of them all they may understand their owne liberty To take measure of promises and improve it Lose no performance for lacke of a promise God can enlarge Christ to every dimension of fulnesse height and depth So doe thou Those John 6.27 could beteame to follow Christ for loaves but they saw no further Say we thus Lord if thou heare me in this prayer thou shalt heare of me often I will ply thee with importunity for there is no measure no end nor bottome of thy goodnesse I will come to morrow next day continually For thou art yesterday to day and for ever the same Tell thy soule Heb. 13.8 heaven were not heaven if thou couldst reach all in it yet doe thine endeavour and pray with Paul Eph. 3.16 that thou maist see more in Christ then thou canst aske or thinke Mat. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As in the Lords Prayer thou art bidden to aske bread enough for the day and that which exceeds for so the word signifies As much more Lord as thy bounty can afford Oh brethren who would not know this Charter and Lease except he cared not whether God performed or no Lord I beleeve in that promise which reaches to all my life to my corruptions temptations straits feares to this and to a better life Secondly having so done learn to lot upon him for each performance Lot upon God for performance Ezra 8.21 especially when it goes hard Branch 2 with thee otherwise except God should sticke to thee Thus Ezra having obtained leave of the King for his journey and being now at a pinch for a sufficient convoy in so perillous a journey concluded he would not goe to the King for it lest he should upbraid him but he would goe to the promise for it by fasting and prayer and having so done was well appaid in himselfe lotting upon God that in such an extremity he would not faile him So do thou Thirdly to this end strengthen thy self by the plentifull experience of performances Branch 3 in time past get a calender of performances Strengthen thy self by thy experience at such a time I was heard for my wife for my childe answered in point of marriage estate gifts credit such a strong corruption was subdued such a grace enlarged so that I see it were not in vaine to waite upon thy promises if I had faith sufficient to equall and concurre with them Let me forget none of thy faithfulnesse in my receivings of the Sacraments
Esa 26.2 Salvation will God appoint for wals and bulwarkes Esay 26.1 2 3. What is that The Church under the Gospel should fasten upon the promise for salvation and this should fence out all her troubles and former enemies as a Wall or a Bulwarke keepes out any affronts and vers 3. Thou wilt keepe him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee As the needle of the Diall set just on the North point settles and shakes not and as the Anchor holds in the Ship from floating up and downe so the promise fastned upon stablisheth the soule from her former wanzings and unsetlednesse And the reason is more fully set downe in vers 4. Trust yee in the Lord for ever for the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength that is he is reall in all his promises and gives a being to them as being strong enough to doe it Hence it is Esa 55.4 That the Lord Jesus in the offer or promise is called a Witnesse Behold I have given him for a Witnesse to the people And in Revel 1. That faithfull and true Witnesse Why because he is Yea and Amen all the promises of God in him become so Now as a Witnesse in the Court who is sworne and without exception decides the Controversie betweene two at oddes so the promise beleeved quits the soule and puts an end to strife So in the Hebrews the promise beleeved is compared to a City of refuge which rescued the poore man-slayer whose heart was full of feare and distresse because of the pursuer but there he was free even so the oath and promise of God received into the soule determines all doubts betweene the Lord and her It is said of Hanna that ere Eli had resolved her from God of a sonne shee was full of trouble in spirit But when once hee had satisfied her lo then shee was cheerefull and look'd no more heavily even so is it with the promise fastning upon the soule it causes the waves and stormes of an unquiet heart to turne to a calme Hezekiah was mightily troubled upon the message of death but no sooner came Esay backe againe with the newes of his recovery and the signe of the Suns going back but Hezekiah's moane was turned to a song So is it here For is there not more in a promise of Christ and preach'd to the soule in his name then in all the promises of speciall deliverances which were more darkly derived from him Yes verily Hence it is that the Prophets never describe the power of Christ in his word but they runne very much upon the description also of this effect of chasing away of all spirituall distempers Upon all the glory shall be a defence and there shall be no more weeping nor mourning upon his mountaine In stead of the Bramble Esay 55. ult shall be the Myrtle and in stead of the Thorne shall come the Firre What 's that all shall bee new the face of things shall be changed Teares shall be wiped from all eyes with many such phrases as come not to mind each chapter is full of them So Job 22.29 When men are cast downe then thou shalt say There is a lifting up and hee shall save the humble man Lo consternation and terrors cease by beleeving So Psal 32.6 For this cause shall every good man pray in a time of finding The flouds of great waters shall not come neare him And examples are as evident as other Scriptures How was Cornelius by Peter the Eunuch by Philip the Jaylor by Paul and Silas freed from their doubts and demurres and set at liberty Reasons are many and weighty First this appeares by proportion Reas 1 if we compare the priviledges of Beleevers together we shall find that there be as many as concerne them in point of freedome from their inward distempers as outward enemies But the beleever is really set free from enemies Devill curse law wrath of God an evill world the gates of hell else whence come those triumphs O death where is thy sting O hell where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the law incensing sinne But thankes be to God c. Now if redemption deliver us from enemies so that they shall not hurt us from all crosses straits tribulations so that they shall not separate us from the love of God shall not then Justification free us from inward horrours feares guilt doubt of conscience rebellion of sinne cavils prejudice and distempers Shall not reconciliation ridde us of our enemy and that shame and confusion which sinne brought upon us Yea much more for both come from faith Secondly the contrariety of estates proves it before and after Reas 2 faith The condition of the wicked is That they can have no peace there is none to them Esay 57. ult because as the winter aire is never temperate by reason of those moist and cold vapors which annoy the aire with winds tempests frost and snow and the like so the coast of their spirits can never be cleare because of the guilt of their consciences they may now and then please themselves with a little truce but still warre returneth the dint of their feares is not broken So on the contrary There is no warre to the soule that beleeves As the aire perfectly clensed in the summer is setled and affords a continuall calme so doth the conscience of a beleever Now and then may be over-castings of clouds but the dint of guilt and wrath is gone Thirdly else we should ascribe more to particular promises Reas 3 and the effect thereof which are weaker then to the maine promise which is the Reuben the first borne of God and the sonne of his strength But we see what particular promises have done to them who have beene under sad distempers by affliction Of Hanna and Hezekiah I have spoken before Adde another The Lord promised the Israelites that upon the sprinkling of their door-posts with the bloud of the Passeover Exod. 12. the Angel of the Lord shall passe over their houses and smite none of them Did they find any distempers possesse them when there was out-cry throughout all Egyt in every family No surely they slept sweetly in their beds Did they doubt of the victory against Ai when as they had received a promise of victory or were they afraid as at first when thirty of them were slaine No. When the promise was made of the fall of the wals of Jericho by the sounding of Rams hornes and compassing the City seven times did the people stagger at it were they not resolved And shall not the maine promise of God remove distempers within as well as afflictions without yes and much more Reas 4 Fourthly the contrariety of corrupt infidelity and the power of the promise doth evince it The strength of infidelity stands in bearing downe the word Whatsoever distemper of heart can be mentioned either selfe carnall reason rebellion
God hath strength in his hand to doe this whatsoever Satan hell law or wrath should say to the contrary I say he hath enough to warrant that he hath done against all opposers See Esay 27.4 5. Anger is not in me why Lay hold upon my strength and make peace The satisfaction of Christ is the strength of mercy as truly as the law is the strength of sinne The arme of mercy is so strong through this that the strong arme of justice cannot pull it away from forgiving a poore sinner but mercy will still be above and will not be beaten downe but prevaile against justice yea triumph against judgement By this strength then which overcomes justice shall not the distempers of the soule much more be vanquished and overcome Branch 5 Lastly the intent and purpose of God is by his promise to doe this favour for the soule even to put it out of all doubt and question and to breed assurance in it Heb. 6. That by two things the word and oath of God wherein it was impossible for God to lie we might have full assurance and so twice more in that Epistle he speakes The meaning whereof is As surely as I from all eternity did intend it in the foundation of mine election that is my Sonne as verily as I accepted it at his hands when he offered it up by his eternall spirit as verily as I offer it to my Church under the word of truth which cannot lie and have pawned my Ministers credit upon it that except I speake truely they are errant dissemblers as verily as now my deare Sonne at my right hand in glory pleads for poore soules that they may partake it so truly and really without hooke or crooke doe I intend to shew them mercy Why should not every one then that needs it fasten upon it and drowne all his distempers in it decide all doubts and rest well satisfied Conclusion of reasons To these I might adde many mo As that the promise beleeved gives the soule a full requitall for all which shee forgoes As Peter said We have forsaken all and followed thee Lord what shall we have Our Saviour answers him An hundred fold here and after eternall life So perhaps thou hast forsaken thy old crasie props for Gods word what shalt thou have Even perfect peace that which they could never have bred thee Againe I might say That faith enlarges the hidebound and shrunk heart and makes it concurre with the Lord and equall his bowels I meane to be enlarged in her bowels toward him againe whereas before it was not so but she limited the holy one of Israel and restrained his compassions Besides this word of the promise sets up a light in the heart above all that light which was there before We know when it is dark we are glad of a candle But when the Sunne shines bright a candle is a poore needlesse thing and is drowned by a superiour light So here a blind dark deluded heart is glad of any dimme candle of its owne to make it thinke it sees but when the word comes that dimme light vanishes These and many more I might adde but these are sufficient I hasten to the question and objection and the answers of them Here then first it may be asked The Answer to a Question But may a poore soule truly loaden with her owne sinne and under a condition of a promise be subject to so many distempers I answer yea surely as in the wombe the woman that is conceived with child yet ere the fruit be perfected feeles abundance of inward griefes and pains strugglings and wrestlings ere the fruit be come to the full ripenesse But when it is once come to that the former distempers cease Even so is it here Till faith have formed the soule to a true quietnesse and setling there cannot chuse but be many feares and turne-againes although the seed be cast into the wombe really But what are these I answer In three kinds Such as these I may referre them to these three heads for order sake First erroneous conceits on the right hand proceeding from selfe-love flattering it selfe by her hopes her morall qualities her negative abstinences opinion of her religious duties her affections complaints her liking of goodnesse flashes of joy and the like Oh! how can she chuse but doe well how can she be out of the way Then must thousands perish if she be wrong She is not so sinfull that she should put Gods mercy too farre to straine it selfe Ah poore wretch thinkest thou to fare well by making God lesse work or by making thy selfe to need him above all sinners The Word goes not by thy small sinne but by the graciousnesse of the promiser So also of this sort are all mixtures of selfe and soderings against the Word hoping that such a degree of desire or sorrow or selfe-deniall will serve although it have no roote in the Word nor continue Seeking God so farre as will hold with such a lust liberty or evill custome To sticke to our old condition though we find it crasie by the Word and to be unwilling to goe any further and to strippe and bare herselfe of her owne bottome that Christ might come and take possession But desperately to venture and cast all upon hazard if I be not well let all goe I will take as I find but I will altar none of my course This for the first sort Secondly there are distempers on the left hand for the soule is hurried with extremities on both sides till she beleeve I meane with bondage as well as boldnesse Of this sort are all base feares and wicked conceits against our selves That we are the unhappiest of all men of more aversnesse to Gods will and way then any men or women living That our corruptions are baser then any our natures more crooked inconstant awk and perverse that such spirits as ours so sly subtill and lewd cannot belong to God For then some restraining grace or other would have kept us all this while Why oh poore soule is it not as much for the glory of mercy to save a crooked spirit as a streight dost thou so looke upon thine owne ends that Gods are forgotten Also a false opinion of Gods enmity toward us because we feele our selves as corrupt and hardhearted as ever little amendment in us but much what the same under long hearing many mercies patience crosses meanes of grace What should this argue but that our hearts are given over and left of God Surely if he had chosen us we should not be thus Some there must be after all costs and trials who must be left in their hardnesse of heart and none more like to be of that number then such as we feele our selves So tempted to vile thoughts to lewd lusts and affections So many backwarder and further off then we in shew yet have beene brought home to God before us Many of our time age and
if you have beleeved the Word of God indeed whence are those privie nips of your conscience which do so continually assault you Whence are those terrours of heart with which many of you are met with when you would faine be at peace When you are in the middest of your ease and jollity your liberties your sports and pleasures whence come those cold qualmes over your base spirits barring you out from peace and fastning terrours upon you stronger then you can resist Dare you pretend your selves beleevers when you feele still your old distempers to tosse and turmoile you and to hold you downe with strong hand in secret Joh. 8.30 If they whom the Sonne hath freed are free indeed whence is your slavery No no you do but set a good face on it you make faire weather outwardly but hatch inwardly such a viper as will fret your bowels and destroy you it is one thing to smother and choake your feares and beare downe your distempers another to drowne them in the sea of the promise you have other delights to fill your hearts withall the Lord would have set on the worke of the law more throughly and made you more to stinke in your owne nostrils and to prize the Word of God and the promise of ease if ever you had beene truly loaden But sithence you would have both your lusts and the promise too holding a wolfe by the eares which you are loath to forgoe and yet cannot well keep know that you deceive your selves in boasting that you hold close to the promise for they that do so may lose their distempers therein which you keepe still It is true That the Lord would have all his as Esay saith count it their strength to sit still But how not in a chaire of ease pretending a freedome which you never had and favouring your selves in any forbidden vanities of your owne envie lust pride revenge and the like But the strength of a poore soule is to sit still in respect of her cavillings and fightings against the truth of the promise Perhaps you will say you do so and feele no such matter in your selves but are quiet and secure But I answer your peace is not sound there is a crack in it as appeares by this That you walke not as Gods free-men do you are as close to God in your love in your tendernesse in your humble carriage as you would pretend to be in your beleeving No man can palpably discerne the Devils chaines upon the Lords free-men Wherefore to conclude I say to you as he to that messenger What hast thou to do with peace turne thee behind mee Oh these are the daies wherein the most vile and presumptuous hypocrites catch at a promise and beare downe their consciences But be not thou O Christian friend like to them for their disease wound is but healed deceitfully and shall breake out againe most deadly when they shall not be able to resist it except it please the Lord to send them upon better conditions to claime the promise So much shall serve for this Use Fifthly this bitter reproofe of all such who in the judgement Use 5 of Charity do beleeve and cleave to the Word yet will not be drawne from the bad custome of their former doubts conceits and distempers but suffer Beelzebub still to light upon their sore and to molest them and gall them still Oh! what a dishonour is this to the promise of God still to hold a secret correspondence with Satan and to nourish our old picking of knots and answering of feares by our owne blanching wit and devises yea spending houres and daies wearisomely in setting our owne wit and invention on worke to beat off our objections and thinking they have done themselves good service in the meane while Whence comes this surely by your weaknesse and relapsing from your former hold of the promise This self-wit and will is so naturall that we are prone and propense to revolt and roll backe unto it as fast as the Lord seems to settle us by his Word it is an inbred evill alway fighting against the law of faith as it is easie for a woman to go to a pond or pulke standing neere to her doore though the water be not so good rather then to goe to a fountaine of living water further off Ease and ill custome are inchanting enemies But remember that onely that blood of sprinkling hath in it a sure bottome of staying feares so that the soule may be quiet from the destroying Angell and the out-cries of Egypt Could they who never had the experience of such a thing before yet so confidently venture their lives upon the Word and shall such as have in likelihood approved this promise of God by experience and ventured themselves upon it and felt it a soveraigne remedy against their distempers returne to tread the maze of their old confused thoughts the second time As if the Word had suddenly lost her strength and virtue to sustaine them as formerly Shall forgetfulnesse melancholy temptation corruption ill custome be able to pull them from an assured hold of rest to assured vexation and distemper I speake it brethren upon knowledge It hath beene thus and is thus with many through a wearisomenesse of this spirituall trade of beleeving that men grow into a very falling sicknesse in this kind that is such a custome of wofull doubtfulnesse and distempers that they seem to delight in it Alas poore soule dost thou thinke that to be presumption in thee which the Lord himselfe calls confidence or because perhaps thou feelest the dregs of a bold heart still abiding in thee hast thou no other way to avoid a shallow save by running into a gulfe If the Lord be willing thou shouldst hold thy peace upon the naked termes of his offer and promise seemes it too good for thee or if it be must thou needes undervalue his grace by thy basenesse as if it were too great for him to bestow because it is too good for thee to enjoy Know it from the ground of this doctrine the Lord delights as little in this practise of thine as thou seemest to delight much in it And although I deny not but in respect of thy weaknesse there may be some place for pity yet there is more cause of sharpe reproofe For why Didst thou never beleeve the Word deceive thy selfe no longer and put away thy distrust from thee But hast thou beleeved for so thou didst pretend then trust the Lord still and say with him Why dost thou thus fret O my soule in my breast and recoyle against that which hath formerly satisfied thee Turne rather thy vexation into prayer and say Remove these unpleasing chaines Lord at last and set mee at liberty shew me this wisedome from above not onely barely to cling to it but also to improve it so as to feele the power of it to shut out my base distempers out of doores and there to hold
you should sinne But now you that so strained out a Gnat can swallow a Camell Some of you dare grind the faces of such as you are to deale with and no money is sweeter to you then that which you get by an hard bargaine Once if you be remembred you tooke thought how you should subsist from weeke to weeke for lack of the Word Now you can passe weekes and moneths and never come at a powerfull Sermon and which is worse whereas the least offence in this or any other kind would smite you like the sting of an Adder now you are so brawned that it never troubles you awhit The time hath beene wherein the sorrowes and sufferings of Gods servants went so neere you that they made them deerer to you then ever Now no peny no Pater-noster as the Proverb saith and let them sinke or swimme what care you Once you could forfeit your names your states your paines your liberties for the truth of God Heb. 10. and professe that it was better then ten thousand of your lives Now alas the least stirring of a Mouse behind the painted cloth is enough to make you tremble like an aspen leafe Oh! you love to sleep in a whole skinne and the notion of a persecutor an enemy a prison or a fine is hideous unto you Rather had you to spend five pound to quit your selves of such a feare with a crasie conscience to please a timorous and degenerate spirit then five shillings to hold out the Profession the Resolution for that truth which once was dearer then your lives The dayes have bin when Novices and first Converts Zeale of first converts described were very scrupulous of their fashions in attire their companies their liberties games and recreations both for kind and measure both for for feare of sin and also of scandall marvellous loth to incurre the least suspition of a carnall spirit in these or any kind as jarring with the tendernesse of heart which the first sense of mercy wrought in them Now every man fals to his dispensations and swallowes downe all these as if there were nothing either within them to checke or without them to stumble at Once the manner was to enquire after the closest strictest course of worshipping and walking with God as thinking no cost too much for God Now the fashion is to aske what is the least degree of true faith that if they can make themselves beleeve they have that there they may set downe their staffe Now the first question is What liberty may a godly life admit how may we be religious with least adoe how may we save our selves best and goe neere the wind without too much note for precisenesse or trouble for our profession Iudg. 9. The fatnesse of the Olive and sweetnesse of the Vine was wont to be so precious with most of us that wee abhorred to exalt our selves above the trees with the forfeit thereof But alas those dayes are out of date now each Christian thinkes it no bargaine except he may jolly it out in some carnall manner and live with reputation in the world above his fellowes and with note among them that are carnall if they cannot brave it out with great shewes fine cloaths matches for their children raking up heapes that they may bestow upon the pride of life that which they were wont to bestow upon God good persons and causes it savours not in their nostrils Once they troubled them most who suffered them not to bee godly fast enough now these are no eye-sores they can beare them well enough but they trouble them most who will not let them be rich fast enough who mourne to see that money and pleasures and vanities steale away their hearts they could smite such Numb 22.27 as Balaam did his poore Asse who thus trumpe in their way and stop their pace in that which they cannot seeke fast enough Oh poore wretches Went not the spirit of Grace out with you to stop you also What had you laid this sweet babe in the Cradle to sleepe while you thus play your parts Is there thinke you no dinne to awake this sleepy spirit no crosse to sting you as fire in your flesh and so to recover your temper Take heed then you cozen not your selves at last as you have deceived the hope of others for sure if you be or ever were right there must be a way to let out this Pleurisie Brethren I can scarce tell to whom I speake I scarce beleeve mine owne eyes If I may are there not some here who counted it a marke of their true tendernesse to shunne the least appearance of evill 1 Thes 5. But where is this become Shew me the man whose jealous heart can prove that he hath not by nibbling at smaller evils so imbezzeled his peace and gull'd down the Sea-wals of his feare and conscience that now he is waxen hardned by the deceitfulnesse of sinne What shall we say in these cases Surely either Gods Word and the worke of Grace admits a change with the time or else these are those sadde dayes wherein men have gotten the start of this spirit of Grace and gotten more wit then our Predecessors have had to wit to joyne Religion with the liberty of our owne wils Such dispensations doubtles the Church of God never knew but rather in the loosest times counted it their eare-marke to be closest Christians Those who now nourish tendernesse are made scornes and by-words as fooles who know not their liberties It was once a marke of the true spirit of Grace to make conscience of the Sabbath day as a morall charge although changed by the speciall instinct of the Lord Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the eighth But where shall we come now where every man speakes not his owne words if not prophane yet common and ordinary in all mixt discourses about personall matters or else newes and novelties Who curbs his spirit to the talke of a Sabbath ruling his thoughts affections or converse so as at night he might lie downe in peace Truly Christians shall not have need of enemies to bring in a forme of godlinesse for ought I see themselves even in their distasting it outwardly love it too well inwardly all love a Religion of ease and breadths and owne ends This is that Viper which threatens to eate through the bowels of Religion and to bring it to nought Ah! little doe we thinke that this temper of ours doth lie heavie upon Gods stomach till he spue us out How just is it with the Lord for such a deserting and revolt from the first spirit of our conversion and falling to the mixture of Sardis Ephesus and Laodicea that is a dead a decayed and luke-warme temper to remove the Candlesticke out of his place Revel 2.5 3 18. to take his flight not from the Cherubims to the threshold but from the Temple into a Wildernesse there to gather
of that habit and savour of grace which makes the sound heart desire and resolve to be be good whether any other in the world be so besides himselfe or not The life of the child was so deare to the true mother that although it went against the edge yet she chose rather the false mother should have it then it should be slaine And therefore it was adjudged to her as her owne So is it here A true heart would cose any losse rather deny it selfe to the death then the life of religion should be indangered because it is bred in her bosome So then you see brethren Positives comming from life cannot be assembled by the heart which is dead and unsound An hypocrite for his humour would have the the child religion into his possession for his credit not for love of the life of it for he will starve and kill it for lacke of good keeping only the true mother that bare it and knowes the price of it will nurse and nourish it with her breasts Try thy selfe by this Any Ape will imitate somewhat in a man but he can neither laugh nor speake for lack of Reason Fourthly trie this spirit of Grace by the object Grace strikes at the root By the object the order and equality thereof falshood at the branches onely The zeale love and grace of the spirit is chiefly and mainly against the chiefe corruption of the heart then of life and it is first earnest for the maine most weighty matters of God and then for second things Not first for the latter and then for the former Againe it is orderly equall not preposterous and disproportioned Great are the cries of many Separators from our Communion against corruptions abuses in our Church But you shall scarce marke any order in their spirits They begin not at home are not zealous against the abuses of their owne soules see not the pride and desperate selfe-love of their owne hearts The glory of God in their owne Reformation they will not looke at Separatists frō our Church how blind in the discovery of their owne corruptions but suffer themselves to swarme with all base evils see no want of Charity Mercy Compassion Discretion in themselves If they would see their owne beames they might the better discover others But alas if there were no Church abuses to speake of their occupation would cease And why speake they of these abuses Not as becomes them in patience and innocencie to wait for a blessed redresse but to overthrow the Church quite and pull downe the very frame and foundations of it yea to raze it to the ground which never did any of those who are ten times more judicious then the best of them attempt or intend And so they bring an aspersion upon others to be as giddy and rash as themselves who yet as much abhorre it as they do those abuses If the Spirit of Grace of a sound humble and tender heart cleaving to the Word close to the Ordinances could be found in them If Christ and the worke of Faith and Regeneration were as great objects in their eye as outward administrations of the Church we might hope better of their persons then now we can So I might instance in other particulars Many men have zeale affections in them but how do they improve them Surely not upon the reall things of the Gospell but upon personall objects censuring such as equal not themselves in their supposed grace judging men for their ignorance infirmities errors Whereas the spirit of Grace looks inward 1 Cor. 13. it is mercifull long-suffering meeke loving hopeth all things endureth all things it judgeth her selfe in secret and leaves others to stand or fall to their owne Master So likewise the Spirit of Grace is free as the Apostle saith from all partiality and hypocrisie A false spirit cleaves to this Minister or to that for some by-respects Cephas Apollo Paul Rom. 14 4. Iam. 3.17 1 Cor. 3.22 shall goe for his money and accordingly is carried in such affection sometimes above the clouds sometimes lower then the earth in likes and dislikes But a sound spirit loves all the faithfull Ministers of Christ with sutable tendernesse of heart though the measure be as the peculiar relation stands and holds the same affection constantly to all for Christs sake The badge of their Master procures honour to them in his heart whether old young neere farre off the gifts and graces of God though lying diversly are the object of his love Not only will a faithfull Minister be for God in Pulpit but out of it also not zealous in publique and in private as another common person A good heart will not affect a strict closenesse upon the Sabbath and then upon other dayes loose or carelesse in the duties of the second Table using all sorts of companies taking all liberties breaking promises paying no debts running up and downe with neglect of calling and family this is no spirit of grace but of corruptiom guilded over with some file of zeale without substance Fifthly the carriage of the spirit of Grace discernes it from the spirit of unsoundnesse For you shall commonly find The carriage of it that although a false heart will be as earnest zealous and forward as an honest yet one fly or other of selfe reflection will bewray whence it comes even from pride and seeking it selfe It cannot beteame and afford the Lord the cleere and entire honour of the action except in the dressing it licke her owne fingers As a rat behind the painted cloth so doth falshood discover it selfe herein It is as oyle in the hand which cannot be held in If it be in a Preacher you shall find it thus Truly you must pardon mee I was put to it upon a sudden but I trust to your patience why Oh! to draw on praise and admiration Oh saith another I could not satisfie my self in what I did Another will aske How did you taste my doctrine to day even as feast-makers cannot bid their friends welcome be merry but there must be a tang of folly You must pardon us for our poore cheere when yet they know they abound so here Others cannot bring forth a point but it must be with a preface I am to speake to you of a speciall point and I doubt it will search the most of us to the quicke Sundry miscarriages of an unsound heart discovered a point that few of you have heard till now and many there are so full of themselves that if they heare any man of worth praised for his worth they are upon thornes till they can set another copie of their own by the other to blemish it I was the first man saith one that first brought the Gospell into the town I was the man who hunted out such a drunkard and brought such an Adulterer to shame I do such and such good to the Ministery to the poore and the like I have
casting up mire and dirt in them and in the face of the truth and this irksomnes abides long if God see good to enlarge Satan according to his malice Others are discouraged through want of Ministry to follow on that little seed of grace which is cast into them which is ready to dye for lacke of quickning and advice and so living in desolate places and destitute of powerfull meanes are long ere they come to any setling and strength in a promise not knowing that where ordinary meanes faile God himselfe will not bee wanting to perfect what hee hath begunne Others meet with discouragements from such as should encourage them and so they fall the more sadly upon them When the Spouse had dallyed with her beloved through ease and carnalll tendernesse security and selfe-love lo in following after him she was met by the Watchmen Cant. 5.6.7 who buffetted her These should have encouraged her Even Ministers are oft great affronts in the way of poore soules rating and scorning them for their singularity especially when they through errour light upon such as thinking better of them So doe Parents Guardians Masters lay offences in the way of their children orphans servants some threatning to dis-inherit them or to disgrace them others by their snibbing and chiding or over-bearing them doe blast that bud which else would blossome and beare Others also hoping to see examples of many others as zealous as themselves to encourage them and finding that the Gospel prevails little in these dayes the Spirit growes straitned people wax dead and sottish and all their devotion stands in hearing Sermons Alas they quaile and pull in their horns like snails and are afraid they have been too forward and therfore wax as lazie and loose as others except God rouze them up by some sad crosse and make them to see that there must be more resolution in them if they look after salvation each tub must stand upon his own bottome Others resting upon their good duties and performances and thinking religion to consist therein chiefly when they feele small inward life from thence but ebbings and flowings grow at last to suspect their bottome but alas how long is it ere they can reforme their error and take a right course So that by these few instances it may appeare that the difficulties of many who begin fairly are very tedious so that they finde not the worke of conversion so easie as they expected Conclusion of all with admonition I conclude therefore as before let not such be dismaid nor give over the work of God but remember God is now trying them whether there bee soundnesse or no in them to continue and if they will wait meekly his leasure after hee hath taught them to deny themselves he will be found of them as here of Naaman and reveale himselfe to them at last more then at first Vses 2 Secondly this should also teach those who have obtained mercie already Instruction Christians must looke for difficulties as well in their progresse as in their entrance much lesse to wonder if they meet with sundry affronts in their course of Christianity For if this be done in the green tree how much more in the dry If novices who are so unfit for trials meet with so many rubs to keep them from faith how much more must they looke for them whose strength is greater Therefore consider I pray you and know God will try all upon whom he hath bestowed any speciall favours and blessings One way or other sooner or later the Lord will lay stops and blockes in your way to try what is in you and whether all that hee hath done for you can prevaile so farre with you as to think him worth the cleaving and clinging unto with faith and confidence Gen. 22.2 Esay 38. Job 1. Gen. 39.7 2 Sam. 16.5 25. Matth. 26.69 Abraham must be tried by Isaac Hezekiah by the Embassadours Iob by losse of all hee hath Ionah by the errand to Ninivee Ioseph by Putefâ—rs wife David by Shemei by Nabal by Mephibosheth Peter by the Damosell and others of the Saints by other trialls whether God be above their carnall delights whether their hearts be lowly whether they can deny their wealth their will whether they be that in secret which they are openly what meeknesse patience equality of heart is in them Professors in their novicery looke not to meet with many troubles whether they bee sound and resolved to stick to God or no. None shall want their trials Alas many a poore soule entring upon profession lookes but from hand to mouth how he may hold fast the promise and live according to knowledge but lo in a short time after troubles arise in the married estate sicknesse losses enemies pursuits wrongs such as hee expected not On the other side A none of them the Lord perhaps armes some strong corruption to pinch and gall him which he knowes not how to be rid of or stings him by unthankfulnesse of such as owe most love by unfaithfulnesse and aloofnesse of such as have been greatest friends by the sad revolts and scandals of such as for their owne ease and private ends renounce that love to Gods cause and that zeale to the truth which they have testified Sometimes by false aspersions and reports staining them and unjustly depraving them behind their backes otherwhiles by bad times frowning upon them and turning their prosperity into affliction Againe perhaps the Lord tries others by some hard duty beset with great difficulties so that either they must forfeit conscience or else some desirable thing which they are loth to forgoe Oft-times the Lord tries some by company pleasure liberty occasions of sudden wrath distemper worldlinesse and infinite it were to mention all By these he would let men see all that is in their heart he will either discover their grace that he may trust them for ever after or else their halting self-ends hollownesse pride love of themselves strong poysons of heart breach of covenant and so humble them subdue their sinnes for them in due season that they may not deceive and destroy their owne soules And what wonder Doe wee thinke that God is willing to lose his cost or to harbour such under his roofe as he knowes not what to make of Such as under colour of Religion maintaine a great deale of loose scurfe within them Is it for the glory of God to owne such No surely he will put them to it one time or other that hee may by this meane separate the pretious from the vile and their owne hay and stubble from his owne Pearles and Jewels I grant we thinke otherwise and hope to escape in a mist and to carry our course even and faire God will try his to separate the pretious from the vile without any great trials or affronts and the rather because perhaps wee have long made a shift to goe on smoothly with praying in
insomuch that that the people thought it had beene better if the onset had never beene made Now when they saw this the Elders come to Moses saying God be judge betweene us and you q.d. we pray God there be plaine dealing among you for you have made us stinke in the sight of Pharaoh all goes worse and worse through your mediation Exod. 5.20.21 who would have liked this contrariety Yet the Lord who could exalt himselfe above all these lets and over Pharaoh himselfe wrought to his people a deliverance even from hence and that which this tyrant would not permit willingly to be done lo the Lord by forcible breaking in upon him doth compell him to and in the way of saving Israel from him overthrowes himselfe Joh. 9.5.35.36 See Joh. 9. When the Lord Jesus had once prevented that poore blinde creature with love and the handsell of his cure presently in stead of good successe all falls out very foule for why The Pharisees to stoppe the glory of it swarme like hornets about this poore man disquieting him with questions and snaring him with their malice till at last for his loyall Apology for Christ they had cast him out by excommunication This might seeme an hard gobbet for so weake a stomacke to digest and rather a meane quite to discourage him But could all their railing upon him and Christ alienation of him from Christ estrangednesse of parents doe it No as poore as that seed was in him yet lively it was and held out forcibly against all enemies valiantly defending Christs honour and innocency till when the time came that the Lord Jesus saw good to strike up the bargaine a few words served the turne and in the meane while no discouragements could beat him off all wrought him closer and faster to Christ by that secret and hidden attendance of the Spirit upon the poore entrance which had beene begunne Rom. 8. All shall tend from the first to the last to their good whom God loveth not onely in sanctification but in vocation also both being subordinate to election though the former under a stronger promise Act. 9.1.6.7.8 c. Who also thirdly could have thought that Paul had beene neare his conversion when he breathed out threats against the Saints like a Lion at his nostrills Yet that could not keepe off Gods preventing mercy from casting him downe and taming him and being so cast downe and a breach made let the Lord slacken his worke Did he not assist it strongly When this poore prisoner instead of pursuant lay blinde and desolate yea when all were affraid to meddle with him as thinking the Lion to be couchant for a skill that he might be rampant after how doth the Lord breake through all difficulties and sends Ananas to open the eies both of his body and soule and make him a sound man And thus here this poore Naaman in shew further from cure then at first how doth the Lord strangely turne the winde out of the East of a distemper into the South of a calme Causing here poore servants to become prevalent with their Lord to yeeld to that which he had renounced Surely so it is the Lord can on the suddaine cause deliverance to appear as recovery out of a long quartaine ague even when all hope is past when doome is given of shipwracke Act. 27. God shall make Paul to stand up with a word of hope to poore wretches he can hasten salvation with wings when it seemes a farre off when misery is at the deepest then comes up the seed of light which was sowne for the righteous As when there is no strength to bring forth the Lord unlooked for enlarges birth for the fruit that is to come to the birth and as the tender nurse overcomes the poore froward child with love and mildnesse till she have brought it out of it humors so here Esay 38. the doctrine then stands firme upon her bottome If any here aske Quest how and which way the Lord goes to work in such a businesse I answer Answ Assistance of grace wherein it stands by accommodating himselfe in speciall to the condition of such a soule as doth sticke thus in the birth and staggers between Gods preventing and perfiting grace I say his assistance is alway according to the soules difficulty Here in this case of Naaman we may clearly see how he steppes in by the servants furnishing them with more understanding of his case and inabling them to ponder the same with the sad effects of it more then Naaman himselfe and hereby kindling in them a sparkle of divine counsell which enabled them to speake wisely feelingly pertinently and in due season according to his condition with speciall blessing succeeding the same and carrying it home to their Masters spirit how easily had the thing fallen out otherwise in every of these had not God assisted him By these instruments the Lord first stopped the precipitate minde of Naaman from so suddaine a departure weakened his strong conceit overthrew his carnall cavill abated his pride cooled his rage enlarged the promise the easinesse the probablenesse yea the divinenesse and certainty thereof till having beaten downe his high thoughts he is made a low valley and prepared for cure and conversion So in like manner doth the Lord worke in any soule which needs his seconding assistance towards the enjoying of salvation he will not suffer them to want any helpe which may further them For example Instances Doth the Lord see their discouragements to come from others He will arme them with strong courage of resistance and resolution as Joh. 9. Are they miscarried with strong error agâ—inst the way of the promise The Lord will send them counsell from heaven to rectifie and settle them Are they held under great infirmity and crasinesse of spirit not daring to beleeve The Lord will not breake the reed that is already brused nor quench the smoking flax Are they prejudicate against the Minister God will bring forth his light as here he did Elisha's and imbreed an holy opinion of him Doe friends oppose and become enemies God will turne them to friends and furtherers againe Are they froward and distempered in spirit so that they are as troubled waters and cannot see light of truth or make so much haste that they cannot waite The Lord will sweeten and moderate their spirits with meekenesse and forbearance Are their corruptions strong The Lord will beate them downe before them Briefly be their lack and ayle whatsoever it can be God will supply it he will enlighten sustaine perswade enlarge prepare them for his worke both by casting out that which is contrary and by encouraging that which is weakly begunne till the worke be finished If he meane that the businesse shall be depending longer then the lets shall be smaller and more tolerable if the objections and oppositions be more forcible hee will shorten the season Note and hasten his worke