favour and grace of great persons alway And as the favourable aspect of the heavens upon inferiour bodies promiseth good things and men promise themselves from that favour and good so the favour and grace of God enlarge the soul with joy and comfort And there is that measure of joy in those that are in the free favour of God that they will honour God freely to cast themselves upon his mercy And it is with a disesteem of all things in the World besides it is such a joy as works in the soul a base esteem of all things else St. Paul esteemed all drosse in comparison of the knowledge of Christ and the favour of God in Christ. So in Psal. 4. David saith of some There be many that will say who will shew us any good any good it is no matter but saith the Holy Spirit in David Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon me He goes to prayer he saith not who will shew us any good it is no matter what or how we come by it any earthly good worldly men desire No saith he Lord shew us the light of thy countenance he desires that above all things So he saith Psal. 3. The loving kindnesse of the Lord is better then life it self Life is a sweet thing the sweetest thing in the World but the grace and favour of God is better then that For in this when all comforts fail the Children of God have assurance that neither life nor death nor things present nor things to come nor any thing can separate us from the love of God in Christ which shews it self better then life it self When life fails this favour shall never fail Nothing shall be able to separate us from the favour of God in Christ it is an everlasting favour and therefore everlasting because it is free if it were Originally in us it would fail when we fail but it is an everlasting favour because it is free God hath founded the cause of love to us in himself so much for that Grace be unto you And peace All that I will say of peace in this place is this to shew That True peace issues from Grace It is to be had thence Peace we take here for that sweet peace with God and peace of conscience and likewise peace with all things when all things are peaceable to us when there is a sweet successe in all businesse with a security in a good estate It is a blessed thing when we know that all will be well with us This quiet and peaceable estate issues from grace peace of conscience especially I observe it the rather It hath been the errour of the world to seek peace where it is not to seek peace in Sanctification to seek it in the work of Grace within a man Not to speak of worldly men that seek peace in outward contentments in recreations in friends and the like alas it is a poore peace But I speak of Religious persons that are of a higher straine they have sought peace but not high enough True peace must be selected from Grace the free favour in Christ. This will quiet and still the clamours of an accusing conscience God reconciled in Christ will pacifie the conscience nothing else will do it For if our chief peace were fetched from sanctification as many fetch it thence in error of judgment alas the conscience would be dismaid and alwaies doubt whether it had sanctification enough or no. Indeed sanctication and grace within is required as a qualification to shew that we are not Hypocrites but are in the state and covenant of Grace it is not required as a foundation of comfort but as a qualification of the persons to whom comfort belongs Therefore David and St. Paul and the rest that knew the true power and efficacy of the Gospel they sought for peace in the grace and free favour of God Let us lay it up to put it in practise in the time of dissolution in the time of spiritual conflict in the time when our consciences shall be awakened and perhaps upon the rack and Satan will be busie to trouble our peace that we may shut our eyes to all things below and see God shining on in Christ that we may see the favour of God in Christ by whose death and passion he is reconciled to us and in the Grace and free favour of God in Ghrist we shall see peace enough It is true likewise besides peace of conscience of all other peace peace of successe and peace of state that all creatures and all conditions are peacable to us whence is it It is from Grace for God being reconciled he reconciles all when God himself is ours all is ours when he is turned all is turned with him when he becomes our father in Christ and is at peace with us all are at peace besides so that all conditions all estates all creatures they work for our good It is from hence when God is turned all are turned with him He being the God of the creature that sustaines and upholds the creature in whom the creature hath his being and working he must needs therefore turn it for the good of them that are in covenant with him All that are joyned in covenant with him he fills them with peace because they are in Grace with him This should stir up our hearts above all things in the world to pray for Grace to get Grace to empty our selves of self-confidence that we may be vessels for Grace to make Grace our plea to magnifie the Grace of God We must never look in this world for a peace altogether absolute that is reserved for heaven our peace here is a troubled peace God will have a distinction between heaven and earth But when our peace is interrupted when the waters are come into our souls what must be our course when we would have peace go to Grace go to the free promise of Grace in Christ. Grace and Peace From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The spring of Grace and peace are here mentioned After the Preface he comes to the Argument which he intends and begins with blessing One part of the scope of this blessed Apostle is to avoid the scandall of his sufferings for he was a man of sorrows if ever man was next Christ who was a true man of sorrow the blessed Apostle was a man of miseries and sorrow Now weake shallow Christians thought him to be a man diserted of God they thought it was impossible for God to regard a man so forlorn so despicable as this man was What doth he before he comes to other matters he wipes away this imputation and cleers this scandal You lay my crosses and sufferings and disgraces in the world to my shame it is your weakness that which you account my shame is a matter of praise I am so farre from being disheartned or discouraged from what I suffer that Blessed be God the Father of
there is a God and God is unchangeably true there would be nothing true in the world for all truth is therefore true because it is answerable to that exemplar truth that is true in God answerable to Gods conceit and decree of things This I observe the rather because it is a fundamental thing it doth wondrously stablish our faith in Divine truths when we know it comes from God that is true If we would seek for evidences of our faith then we must go within us and see what love and what hope what combat between the flesh and spirit there is but if we look for any thing to stablish our faith go out of us consider the unchangeable truth of God whose truth it is God as God creating a reasonable creature he must give him some revealed truth he could not be worshipped else How must we know this revealed truth whereby he will be worshipped by the reasonable creature for no man will be served by his servant as he pleaseth how shll we know these certain truths because they come from his nature God is true and as God is true so our word to you was not you and way that is it was true There is the same ground of the certainty of Evangelicall truth as there is of God himself to be true To add a little further in the Point consider the truth of God every way the faithfulnesse of God as it signifies in the originall as God is faithful Consider what relations God hath put upon him in his divine truth how he will be thought on And then bring those relations to his nature for there we must pitch at last What is he to us and how hath he revealed himself to us Thus and thus What is he in his nature So and so and there we must rest For instance The Lord hath made many promises who is it that hath made them he that is true and unchangably true there the soul rests in the nature of God But what relations hath he put upon him he is a God and a Lord and a Judge and a Father c. Now as he is God he is true therefore he will do all things that a true God should doe he will uphold his creature while he will have his creature continue he will give it life and being and motion And as a Lord he will do with his own what he list and it is not for us to contend with him why he will do this or that why he makes one rich and another poore He is Lord of all and a true Lord therefore we must give authority to this true Lord. And then as he is a Judge he corrects men for sin and rewards them for the good they do As a Judge sometime he punisheth them inwardly in conscience sometimes outwardly All the good we have is from this that he is a faithful and true God therefore there we must rest He is a true Judge he rewards every man according to his works whether they be good or evill And so in the relation of a Father he is a true Father he corrects when time serves he rewards and encourageth when time serves he gives an inheritance to his Children and hath pity and compassion on his Children when time serves He is a true Father Other fathers do this and that out of passion not out of truth and goodnesse but he doth So when we consider God in his relations consider of the attribute of his truth All truth in his Word comes from this God is true This truth is sealed by this that our truth to you our word to you was not yea and nay uncertain Gods truth is not uncertain and variable There is no shadow of change in him and his Word is like himself We say usually in the word of an honest man and that is something In verbum Sâ—…rdotis in the word of a Priest it was accounted in former times a great matter it should be so indeed In the word of a King is a great matter But when God saith in the Word of a God The Word of the Lord hath spoken so It is not yea and nay it was not flexible and doubtful because it is the Word of him that hath the command of all that he saith it is his VVord that is Lord of Heaven and Earth Now when he that saith a thing is the Lord of Heaven and Earth he is Lord of his own Word therefore what he saith is not yea and nay uncertain for he can make good what he saith There is the same ground of Evangelicall truth as there is of God himself to be true I will speak no more in the unfolding of the Point it is plain that God is true Is this true that God is true that he is truth it self then many things issue from hence It is a ground of many other truths It was the ground of all the Uses that S. Paul makes of the Word of God it is profitable every way I will name some principall to avoid multiplicity in a plain Point God is true and his Word is true hereupon the threatenings of God must needs be true even as true as God himself If this be so then unlesse we will make another Scripture another Word this Word is yea That Word that threatens sin that Idolaters and covetous and wantons shall never enter into the Kingdome of heaven Be not deceived saith the Apostle that Word is yea it is true God is true this must follow therefore that whatsoever he saith is true therefore his threatenings are true It is a truth that hath influence into all other truths whatsoever that which is prefixed here by S. Paul not onely as an oath As Gad is true so his Word is not yea and nay but certain but I say it hath influence into all other truths whatsoever threatnings promises directions all are therefore true because God is true Therefore those that shuffle off the threatnings and think they shall do well and blesse themselves Gods wrath shall smoak against them for God must alter his nature and his Word must be altered or else his judgments must stick on them to death and damnation without repentance If God should not be avenged on ordinary swearers and blasphemers if adulterers should live in such sins and ever come to heaven they must have another God and another Word of God this hath said they shall not enter into heaven that live in these sins If it be true as God is true what horrible Atheisme is in the hearts of men to think that God will change his nature though they do not change their course and that the Word of God shall alter though they will not alter what hope can prophane blasphemous persons have that make but a trifle of swearing when God hath said they shall not go unpunished and those that live in a filthy course when God hath said Whor emongers and adulterers God will judge without horrible
certain they are made in him and in him they are Amen that is they are accomplished in him in him they are made and in him they are accomplished I might spend a great deal of time to shew the acception of the word Amen but it is not pertinent to my purpose Amen is here certain undoubtedly certain as it is here to make way to that which is to be understood There are three main senses of Amen It signifies that a thing is positively so and not no it is so Yea and Amen signifie that such a thing is as Let your yea be yea such a thing is But now Amen is more not onely that a thing is but it is so truly and so unchangeably it is Yea and Amen The Promises are yea they are made in Christ and then they are true in him undoubtedly eternally unchangeably true So take it in the strictest in the strongest sense you can all the Promises of God in Christ they are so true that they are invariably constantly eternally true in him they are made in him and performed in him they are Yea in him and Amen in him So the whole carriage of the Promises is onely in Christ. The truths we are to deliver out of the words are these First of all we must know That since the fall of man it hath pleased the Divine Nature the three Persons in Trinitie to stablish a Covenant of grace and so of salvation in Jesus Christ and to make him a second principle a second Adam by whom mankind is restored to a better estate then ever we had in the first Adam God now since the fall takes another course to bring us back again to him He doth not leave us as he left the Angels that fell in a state of perdition for ever but as we fell by infidelity and distrust of him so now we are recovered again by Promises and by faith in them There can be no intercourse between God and man but by some promise on his part God deales with man by Promises The reason is this How can man dare to challenge any thing of the great Majestie of God without a warrant from himself How can the conscience be satisfied The conscience looks to God it is a knowledge together with God how can conscience rest but in that it knowes comes from God Therefore for any good that I hope for from God I must have a promise For this is Gods constant dispensation while we live in this world we are alway under hope we are children of hope We are saved by hope we rejoyce in the hope of glory and hope looks to the promises whereof some part is unperformed How doth heaven and earth differ heaven is all performance here is some performance to encourage us and there is alway some promise still unperformed We are alway under some Promise and therefore the manner of our apprehending God in this world differs from heaven here it is by faith and hope there by vision vision is fit for performance faith and hope looks to the Promise alway here Therefore God rules his Church by Promises partly I say to secure the soul of man we cannot have any thing from God but by the manifestation of his own good will How can we look for any thing from God but by promise can we look for any thing from God by our own conceits that is a fooles Paradise Further God will have his Church ruled by Promises in all ages to exercise faith and hope and prayer and dependance upon God God will try of what credit he is among men whether they will depend upon his promise or no so that knowing he is true by promise it may be certain to them they shall have performance in time he gives men Promises to see if they will trust him God will have this manner of dispensation to rule his Church by Promises to arm us in this world against feares and discouragements therefore we have alway some Promise He might have done us good and have given us no promise but now having given us Promises he will try the graces that are in us and arm us against all discouragements and difficulties till the thing promised be performed For we must know that a Promise is a Divine thing better then any earthly performance Let God give a man never so much in the world if he have not a promise of better things all will come to nothing at the last Therefore God supports the soules and spirits of his Children with Promises to arm them against all temptations on the right hand and on the left that would draw them from trusting in his Promise he will have them live by faith and that hath alway relation to the Promise This is a general ground then That God now in Christ Jesus hath appointed this way to govern the Church with Promises Now what is a Promise A Promise is nothing but a manifestation of love an intendment of bestowing some good and removing some ill a manifestation of our mind in that kind is a promise of conferring of a future good or removing of a future ill therefore it comes from love in the party promising There are three degrees of loving steps whereof a promise is the last The first is inward love The second is real performance And the third is a manifestation of performance intended before it be and this I say is a degree of love For love concealed it doth not comfort in the interim in the time that is betwixt Now God who is love doth not onely love us and will not only shew his love in time but because he will have us rest sweetly in his bosome and settle our selves on his gracious Promises in the mean time he gives us rich and precious Promises He is not onely love and shewes it in deed but he expresseth it in word And we may well build on his Word as verily as if he had performed it in deed for whatsoever he saith is Yea and Amen This is the nature of a promise It is not only love and the expression of love in deed but the expression of it in word when he intends to solace and comfort and stablish and stay the mind of man till the good promised be performed Therefore even from this we see how God loves us that not onely he hath an inward love in his breast and doth good to us but he manifests it by word he would have us as I said live by faith and stablish our selves in hope Faith and hope are two graces altogether from Promises if there were no promise there could be no faith nor hope what is hope nothing but the expectation of the things that the Word saith And what is faith but a building on the Word of God Faith looks on the Word that God will give such a thing and hope looks upon the thing that the Word promiseth as the
onely so but he sealed him by many miracles by the resurrection from the dead by which he was declared to be the Son of God by the calling of the Gentiles and by many other things Christ being sealed he sealed all that he did for our redemption with his blood and for the strengthening of our faith he hath added outward seales the two Sacraments to seal our faith in this blood and in him who is sealed of the Father But here in this place is meant another manner of sealing for here is not meant the sealing of Christ but the sealing of us that have communion with Christ. The same Spirit that sealed the Redeemer seales the redeemed What is our Sealing Sealing we know hath this use First of all it doth imprint a likenesse of him that doth seal upon the wax that is sealed as when the Kings Picture or Image is stamped or sealed upon the wax every thing in the wax answers to that in the seal face to face eye to eye hand to hand foot to foot body to body So we are said to be sealed when we carry in our soules the Image of Jesus Christ for the Spirit sets the stamp of Jesus Christ upon every Christian so that there is the likenesse of Christ in all things understanding answers understanding in proportion as a child you know answers the father it hath limb for limb foot for foot finger for finger but it is not in quantity but in proportion and likenesse so it is in the soul that is sealed by the Spirit there is a likenesse to Christ something of every grace of Christ there is understanding of the same heavenly supernatural truths there is a judging of things as Christ judgeth and the affections go as Christs do he loves that which Christ loves and he hates that which he hates he joyes in that which Christ delights in Every affection of the soul is carried that way that the affections of our blessed Saviour are carried in proportion Every thing in the soul is answerable to Jesus Christ and there is no grace in Christ but there is the like in every Christian in some small measure the Obedience of Christ to his Father even to the death it is in every Christian the Humility whereby Christ abased himself it is in every Christian. Christ works in the soul that receiveth him a likenesse to himself And this is an undoubted Character of a Christian The soul that believes in Christ doth not onely believe in him for his own sake to be forgiven of his sins but together with believing feeling the forgivenesse of his sins and that Christ hath so loved him and done such things for him he is ambitious to expresse Christ in all things and it stirres him up with desire to be like him for thinks he is there such love in Christ to me and is there such grace and mercy in God to me and was Christ so good as to do and to suffer such things for me Oh how shall I improve things for him Oh that I might be like him lovely in his eyes This I say must needs be so these desires are undoubtedly universally in the soules of all those that partake of Christ it is the nature of the thing to be so we shall desire to be transformed more and more to Christ Every way to bear the Image of the second Adam who is as the Apostle saith from heaven heavenly and so shall we be heavenly-minded as he was heavenly-minded on earth talking and discoursing of the Kingdome of Heaven and sitting people for the Kingdome of heaven and drawing others from this world to meditate of a better estate there is a likenesse to these in the soul of every believer and that 's the reason that Christs Offices are put together in all those that he saves that look whosoever he is a Priest to to dye for their sins to them he is a Prophet to teach them and a King to subdue their corruptions and to change them and alter them and to rule them by his Spirit You have carnal men in presumption which leads them to destruction they sever things in Christ they will take benefit by Christ but they care not for his likenesse they will have him as a Priest but they respect him not as a King Now all that are Christs have the stamp of the Spirit upon them there are desires wrought in them by the Spirit of God to that purpose and a Spirit of Sanctification that makes them every way like Christ in their proportion And that is an evidence of the sealing of such a soul because the soul of it self hath no such impression for the soul of it self is a barren Wildernesse a stone that is cold and uncapable of impression when therefore the soul can command nature being stiffe and hard and dead we see an impression of a higher nature a man may know that undoubtedly the Spirit of God hath been in this soul for we see a loving spirit an humble spirit a gracious a believing a broken spirit an obedient spirit to every commandment of God the soul can yield it self wholly to the will of God in all things certainly I say the Spirit of God hath been here for these things grow not in a natural soul. A stone you know is cold by nature and if a man feel a stone to be hot a man may undeniably gather Certainly the Sun hath shined upon this stone Our hearts are very cold by nature undoubtedly when they are warmed with the love of God that they are made plyable to duties the Sun of righteousnesse Christ hath shined on this cold heart Gods Spirit can work on Marble can work on Brasse as Jeremy saith It was the commendations of one of the Fathers that he could work on Brasse God can work on our soules which are as brasse and make an impression of grace there and therefore when a man sees an impression upon such hard mettal certainly he may know that the finger of Gods Spirit hath been there So that the work of Sanctification is an undoubted feal of the Spirit of God A second use of a Seal is Distinction Seales are given for distinguishing for you know sealing is a stamp set upon some few out of many so this sealing of the Spirit it distinguisheth Christians from others as we shall see more at large afterwards Then again a Seal it serves for Appropriation for men seal those things that are their own Merchants seal those Wares that they either have or mean to have a right unto Men seal their own sheep and not others and stamp their own Wares and not others God here stoops so low as to make use of terms that are used in humane matters and contracts and by sealing he shewes that he hath appropriated his own to himself chosen and singled them out for himself to delight in Again sealing further serves to make things authentical to give authority and excellency to
and troubled and we hear many comfortable truths let us lift up our prayers to God let there be ejaculations of spirit to God Now Lord by thy holy Spirit set and seal this truth to my soul that as it is true in it self so it may be true to me likewise This is a necessary Observation for us all Oh we desire all of us in the hour of death to find such comforts as may be standing comforts that may uphold us against the gates of Hell and against the temptations of Satan and terrours of Conscience why nothing will do this but spiritual truths spiritually known nothing but holy truths set on by the hoy Spirit of God But what course shall we take when we want comfort when we want joy and peace In the third of John there are three witnesses in heaven and three in earth to secure us of our state in grace and the certainty of our salvation The three witnesses upon earth are the Spirit the water and the blood and these three agree in one and the three that bear witnesse in heaven are the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and the three on earth and these three in heaven agree in one Now the Spirit is the feelings and the sweet motions of the Spirit The water may well be that washing of the Spirit sanctification The blood is the shedding of the blood of Christ and justification by it When therefore we find that part of the seal that extraordinary seal that I spake of before the joy of the Spirit of God that it is not in us what shall we do shall we despair No go to the water when we find not spiritual joy and comfort when the witnesse of the Spirit is silent go to the work of the Spirit in sanctification I but what shall we do if the waters be troubled in the soul as sometimes there is such a confusion in the soul that we cannot see the Image of God upon it in sanctification we cannot see the stamp of Gods Spirit there there is such a Chaos in the soul God can see somewhat of his own Spirit in that confusion but the Spirit it self cannot Then go to the blood of Christ there is alwayes comfort the fountain that is opened for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in is never dry go therefore to the blood of Christ that is if we find sin upon our consciences if we find not peace in our consciences nor sanctification in our hearts go to the blood of Christ which is shed for all those that confesse their sinnes and rely on him for pardon though we find no grace For howsoever as an evidence that we are in Christ we must find the work of the Spirit yet before we go to Christ it is sufficient that we see nothing in our selves no qualification for the graces of the Spirit they are not the condition of coming to Christ but the promise of those that receive Christ after Therefore go to Christ when thou feelest neither joy of the Spirit nor sanctification of the Spirit go to the blood of Christ and that will purge thee and wash thee from all thy sins This I onely touch for a direction what to do when our soules want comfort when perhaps we cannot see the seal of the Spirit in sanctification so clearly To go on now to the next And given us the Earnest of the Spirit Here is the third word borrowed from humane affaires to set out the work of the Spirit in our soules Anointing we had before and Sealing now here is Earnest The variety of the words shewes that there is a great remainder of unbelief in the soul of man that the Spirit of God is fain to use so many words to expresse Gods dealing to the soul to bring it to believe to be assured of salvation And indeed so it is howsoever we in the time of prosperity when all things go well with us we are prone wondrously to presume yet in the hour of death when conscience is awakened we are prone to nothing so much as to call all in question and to believe the doubts and fears of our own hearts more then the undoubted truth and promise of God therefore God takes all courses to stablish us he gives us rich and precious promises he gives us the holy Spirit to stablish us on the Promises he seales us with his Spirit and gives us the earnest of the Spirit and all to settle this wretched and unbelieving heart of ours So desirous is God that we should be well conceited of him he loves us better then we love our selves He so much prizeth our love that he labours by all means to secure us of his love to us because except we know his love to us we cannot love him again and we cannot joy in him c. But that onely in the general Here is earnest and the Earnest of the Spirit that is in plain termes he gives us the Spirit with the graces and comforts of it which doth in our hearts that which an earnest doth amongst men But what is this Spirit an earnest of It is an Earnest of our inheritance in heaven of our blessed estate there We are sons now but we are not heires invested into the blessed estate we have title to God leaves us not off in the mean time while we are in our Pilgrimage he keeps not all for heaven but he gives us somewhat to comfort us in our absence from our Husband from our Lord and King Christ he gives us the Earnest of the Spirit that is he gives the holy Ghost into our hearts which is the Earnest of that blessed everlasting glorious condition which we shall have in heaven hereafter that is the meaning of the words In what regard is the Spirit called an Earnest First of all an Earnest is for security of bargains and contracts so the Holy Ghost assures the soul of salvation being present with his graces and comforts the Holy Ghost is given for security Secondly an Earnest is part of the whole bargain though it be a very little part yet it is a part and so the Spirit of God here and the work of the Spirit and the graces and joy of the Spirit it is a part of that full joy and happinesse that shall be revealed The Spirit dwells not fully in any one he dwelleth no further then he sanctifieth and reviveth but that is an Earnest for the time to come that the Spirit shall be all in all wherein we shall have no reluctancy nor nothing to exalt it self against the sure regiment of the Spirit Thirdly an Earnest is little in comparison of the whole bargain so the work of the Spirit the comforts the joy the peace of the Spirit it is little in comparison of that which shall be in heaven in regard of the fulnesse of the Spirit which we shall have there An Earnest though it be little in quantity yet it
this hope saith the Apostle purgeth himself he that finds some little beginnings of grace and comfort the beginings of heaven upon Earth he frames himself to the perfect state in heaven for it is the nature of faith and hope wheresoever they are to frame the disposition of the person in whom those graces are planted by the Spirit to the condition of that that soul believes and hopes for it is in the nature of the thing it should be so For doth not hope in any man that hopes to appear before some great person make him alter his attire and fashion his carriage and deportment as may be plausible before the person whom he goes to and doth not faith and hope of better things where they are in truth fashion and dispose every man to be such as may be fit for heaven The title to heaven we have indeed by Christ but the soul knowes there must be a qualification No unclean thing shall enter into heaven and therefore where the Earnest is there is a continual desire to be better a continual relinquishing of corruptions more and more a perfecting of the work of mortification and the work of grace more and more for the same Spirit that is an Earnest and gives us any beginning of a better life it likewise stirres us up it fits and prepares us for that state that is kept for us it is impossible it should be otherwise In what strength the Earnest is in that strength sanctification and mortification are and therefore persons that live in sins against Conscience that defile their tongues and defile their bodies let them talk what they will it is but a presumptuous conceit it is not the voyce of Gods Spirit but of carnal presumption for wheresoever the Spirit is an Earnest of heaven it is alwayes preparing and fitting the soul for that glorious happy estate And wheresoever likewise this Earnest of the Spirit is wheresoever this grace is begun in truth there is a desire of accomplishment an earnest desire of the coming of Christ to finish all to finish the bargain Rev. 22. The Spirit and the Spouse say Come that is the Spouse by direction of the Spirit where the Spouse is guided by the Spirit and so far as the Spouse is guided by the Spirit she saith Come Come Lord Jesus come quickly Except in two Cases Except the Christian hath grieved and wounded his conscience grieved the Spirit and then it is loath to go hence Unlesse likewise the spirit of a Christian be careless and would settle things in better order before he go to Christ for this is the fruit of presumption and carelesnesse that it grieves the Spirit of God and the Spirit being grieved grieves them he makes that which should be their comfort their going to Christ by death he makes it terrible for as we see a weak eye cannot endure the light so a gauled guilty conscience trembles to think of Christs coming though the Earnest be there yet if the soul tremble that the soul be wounded stay a while Oh stay saith the Psalmist before I go hence and be no more seen When the wife hath been negligent she would have her husband stay but when she hath been diligent then the wife is willing her husband should come but perhaps things are not settled as they should and therefore she doth not desire his coming as at other times But take a Christian in his right temper he is willing to dye nay he is willing and glad and joyful to go to Christ then he knowes the Earnest shall be accomplished with the bargain then he knowes what God hath begun he will perfect then he knowes all the Promises shall be performed when all imperfection shall be removed and all enemies shall be conquered c. A carnal man doth not say as the Spirit in the Spouse speaks Come Lord come but stay Lord stay and as the Devil that possessed that person What have we to do with thee Art thou come to torment us before our time they think of it with quaking For otherwise they that have the Earnest of the Spirit have joyful thoughts of it and wishes answerable to those thoughts Again wheresoever this Earnest is in truth the Earnest of the Spirit there is growth for it is the nature of things imperfect to come to their perfection that they may encounter with whatsoever is contrary to them and that they may do their functions that they are fitted by for God Now God having fitted the new creature to serve him and to go through all the impediments in this world and all the crosses where he hath begun this work it will labour to come to perfection As in the natural body we are not content to live but when we have life we desire health and when we have health we are not content with that but we desire strength not onely health but strength to perform that we should do So where the spiritual life is begun the living soul is not content to live to find an Earnest a little beginnings but if he have that he would have health he would not have any spiritual disease to lye on the soul that might hinder it in the functions of it and together with health it desires fuller and fully strength because it hath many temptations to encounter with many corruptions to resist many actions to do many afflictions perhaps to bear all which require a great deal of strength wheresoever grace is in truth it is alwayes with a desire of growth and answerable to that desire will be the use of all the means of growth Again to name one or two more and so end Wheresoever the Spirit is as an Earnest it doth as the seal doth spoken of before that as it hath a quieting power an assuring power it quiets the soul wheresoever it si it is given to stay the soul to comfort it that the whole shall be performed in time and therefore the soul that hath the Earnest of the Spirit so far forth as he hath this Earnest it quiets and stayes the soul. A man may know true faith from false and true Earnest from presumption by this as we know other things I say it stills and quiets the soul and it will endure the tryal We say of Alcumy gold it is counterfeit it will not strengthen the heart true gold hath a corroborating power to strengthen the heart whether it be so or no let the Alcumists look to it but it is true that true Eanest the beginnings of faith though it be but in a little measure it hath a quieting a stilling a strengthening power to strengthen and corroborate the soul for it is given for that purpose And a man that hath the least grace will endure the search as true gold will endure the touchstone the false will not and it is a sign that a man hath true grace in him although it be with much
after there is inward intrinsical grounds in the Word that make us to know the Word without the Church Now they would have the authority of the Word depend upon the Church and so over-rule mens consciences in that case Whereas all that the Church hath is a leading inducing perswading to hear the Word under which Word and Ordinance we shall see such light and majestie in the Scriptures that from inward grounds we shall be perswaded that the Word of God is the Word of God Therefore the Church is the first inducer to believe the Word of God not the last object to which all is resolved For they themselves crosse it in their tenents when they speak discreetly Is this opinion so and so The Church holds it but what authority hath the Church to maintain it where is the authority of your Church then they bring some place of Scripture I will be with you to the end of the world And He that heareth you heareth me c. I do but a little discover to you the danger of this errour They make the Word of God to be believed because the Church saith so they make truth to be believed because their man of sin whom they depend upon saith so Do we believe the Trinity or that Christ is our Redeemer because the Church saith so should we not believe it except the Church say so what if the Church teach the Doctrine of Devils as they do they cannot shake it off we must believe because the Church saith so so upon equal grounds they shall teach the Doctrine of Devils and the Doctrine of Christ because the Church saith so As it was said anciently he that believes two things the one for the other he believes not two but one in effect because he believes the one for the other So in effect they believe nothing but the Church that is themselves believe the truth to be divine because they say so so they may believe any devillish errour because they say so so any treason or rebellion must go current because they say so because they cannot erre Yyou see how they domineer over the faith of others shall not Christ be Christ nor God be God nor the Devil be the Devill except the Church say so Again in the very matters themselves in the points that themselves do not urge the Church of Rome domineers and tyrannizeth over the souls of people For example they hold that the intention of a Minister in the Sacrament makes it effectual What a fear doth this breed in the souls of men that they know not whether they be baptized or no because it must be in the intention of the Minister And then in confession they must confesse all what a tyranny is this to the souls of people when perhaps there is somewhat that they have not confessed and so their confession is of no worth And in satisfaction perhaps I have not made satisfaction enough by their injunction laid on me and therefore I must satisfie in hell what a rack is this to conscience So what a rack to conscience is that opinion that the Pope cannot erre when I cannot tell perhaps whether he be the right Pope or no if he came in by Simony or is not in Cathedra and many conditions they have to salve that Point If any of those conditions be not observed he is not the man he should be what tyranny do they force upon people over their faith Therefore they are called in the Revelations scorpions indeed they are spiritual Scorpions that sting the souls of Gods people The Devil is the King of darknesse and is not he the Prince of darknesse that maintains ignorance of the Word of God that all his old tenents and opinions may have the better sway that he may sit in the blind and dark consciences of people It is said 2. Thess. 2. that he sits in the Temple of God that is in the Church nay he labours to have another Temple to sit in mans soul which is the Temple of the Holy Ghost It is not sufficient for him that is the man of sin to have any other place he must sit in the very souls and consciences of men Satan hath a special malice to sit in the place of God since he was turned out of heaven and cannot come thither he will come to that place if he can upon earth where God should be and where will God be God will especially be in the hearts of his people in the souls and consciences of his people Conscience is Gods throne Satan being thrust out of heaven labours to stablish his throne there Now they that are Satans vicars led with his spirit they are of the same mind let them be what kind of great ones they will they desire to sit in Gods throne in the conscience and if a man will not tie his conscience to them he is no body to them This is the property of Antichrist in the highest degree as far as any are addicted to this that they will not be satisfied but the consciences of men must be tied to them they must deny all honesty and justice and law and all to please them and to gratifie them with particular kindnesse so farre they are led with the spirit of Antichrist and of the Devil himself who labours to sit in Gods throne that is in the hearts and consciences of people And therefore as I said they labour to keep people in darknesse for this very purpose that people may let them into their consciences and rule them as they please As Sampson when they had put out his eyes they led him to base services so do they with Gods people they put out their eyes and then they lead them to grind in the mill to all the base services they can It is not to be spoken of the brutish slavery and ignorance that is in Spain and other Countreys where that Devillish Inquisition reigns which is a great help to Popish Tyranny What should I speak of the state of the Romish Church indeed the main scope of it is to subdue all to them to subdue all Kings and Kingdomes to them that is the grand scope of the greatest of them others have their particular scope for their bellies and base ends but those among them that have brains that are Governours their scope is to bring all under their girdle and how shall they do this They cannot bring their persons but they must bring their consciences for where the conscience is the person will follow presently therefore they labour to lay a tie upon the conscience of Prince and people upon all that so they may domineer and rule over their consciences And for that end they labour to nourish them up in blindnesse for by blindnesse they rule in the conscience and ruling their conscience they may rule their persons and Kingdomes This is their main scope this hath been their plot for many hundred years So
This being a truth that Gods Children when they have tasted of his mercie break forth into his praise it being the end of his favours and nature being inclined thereto this should stirre us up to this duty and that we may the better perform this holy duty let us take notice of all Gods favours and blessings Knowledge stirs up the affections blessing of God springs immediately from an inlarged heart but enlargement of heart is stirred up from apprehension for as things are reported to the knowledge so the understanding reports them to the heart and affections Therefore it is a duty that we ought to take notice of Gods favours and with taking notice of them To mind them to remember them forget not all his benefits Psal. 103. Praise the Lord O my soule and forget not all his benefits insinuating that the cause why we praise not God is the forgetting of his benefits Let us take notice of them let us register them let us mind them let us keep diaries of his mercies and favours every day he renews his mercies and favours every day and we ought to renew our blessing of him every day we should labour to do here as we shall do when we are in heaven where we shall do nothing else but praise and bless him we ought to be in Heaven while we are on the earth as much as we may let us register his favours and mercies But what favours Especially spirituall nay first spirituall favours without which we cannot heartily give thanks for any outward thing for the soule will cast with it self till it feele it selfe in Covenant with God in Christ that a man is the Child of God Indeed I have many mercies and favours God is good to me but perhaps all these are but favours of the Traytor in the prison that hath the libertie of the Tower and all things that his heart can desire but then he looks for an execution he looks for a writt to draw him forth to make him a spectacle to all and so this trembling for fear of a future ill which the soul lookes for it keepes the soul from thankfulnesse It cannot be heartily thankful for any mercy till it can be thankful for spiritual fauors Therefore first let us see that our state be good that we are in Christ that we are in the covenant of Grace that though we are weak Christians yet we are true there is truth in Grace wrought in us And then when we have tasted the best mercies spirituall mercies when we see we are taken out of the state of nature for then all is in love to us when we have the first mercy pardoning mercy that our sins are forgiven in Christ then the other are mercies indeed to us not as favours to a condemned man And that is the reason that a carnall man he hath his heart shut he cannot praise God he cannot trust in God because he staggers in his estate because he is not assured he thinks it may be God fattens me against the day of slaughter Therefore I know not whether I should praise him for this or no. But he is deceived in that for if he had his heart enlarged to blesse God for that God would shew further favour still but the heart will not yield hearty praise to God till it be perswaded of Gods love For all our love is by reflection We love him because he loved us first and we praise and blesse him because he hath blest us first in heavenly blessings in Christ. Let us take notice of his favours let us mind them let us register them especially favours and mercies in Christ. Let us after think how we were pulled out of the cursed estate of nature by what ministery by what acquaintance by what speech and how God hath followed that mercie with new acquaintance with new comfort to our souls with new refreshings that by his spirit he hath repressed our corruptions that he hath sanctified us made us more humble more careful that he hath made us more jealous more watchful these mercies and favours will make others sweet unto us And then learn to prize and value the mercies of God which will not be unlesse we compare them with our own unworthinesse lay his mercies together with our own unworthinesse and it will make us break forth into blessing of God When we consider what we are our selves as Jacob said lesse than the least of Gods mercies We forget Gods mercies every day he strives with our unthankfulnesse the comparing of his mercies with our unworthiness and our desert on the contrary will make us to blesse God for his goodnesse and patience that he will not onely be good to us in not inflicting that which our sins have deserved Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And to name no more bút this one above all beg of God his holy spirit for this Blessing of God is nothing else but a vent from the spirit For as Organs and wind Instruments do never sound except they be blown they are dead and make no musick till there be breath put into them so we are dead and dull instruments therefore it is said we are filled with the Holy Ghost All Gods children they are filled with the spirit before they can praise God the spirit stirres them up to praise him and as it gives them matter to praise him for so it gives the Sacrifice of praise it self God gives to his children both the benefits to blesse him for and he gives the blessing of a heart to blesse him And we must beg both of God beg a heart able to discern spiritual favours to tast and relish them and to see our own unworthinesse of them and beg of God his holy spirit to awaken and quicken and enlarge our dead and dull hearts to praise his name Let us stir up our hearts to it stirr up the spirit of God in us every one that hath the spirit of God should labour to stir up the spirit as St. Paul writes to Timothy and as David stirs up himself Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name so we should raise up our selves and stir up our selves to this duty And shame our selves what hath God freed me from so great misery and hath he advanced me to so happie an estate in this world doth he put me in so certain a hope of glorie in the world to come have I a certain promise to be carried to salvation that neither things present nor things to come shall be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus doth he renew his mercies every day upon me and can I be thus dead can I be thus dull-hearted Let us shame our selves And certainly if a man were to teach a Child of God a ground of humiliation if a Child of God that is in the state of grace should ask how
from us he takes occasion from our sins but he is merciful from his own bowels he is good from himself we provoke him to be severe and just therefore be we never so miserable in regard of sin and the fruits of sin yet he is the Father of mercy of free mercy mercy from himself mercy pleaseth him Micah 7. he is delighted in it Now that which is natural comes easily as water from the fountain comes without violence and heat from the fire comes without any violence because it is natural A Mother pitties her child because it is natural there is a sweet instinct of nature that moves and pricks forward nature to that affection of love that she bears to her child So it is with God it is nature in him to be merciful to his because they are his Mercy is his nature we are his we being his his nature being merciful he will be merciful to all that are his to such as repent of their sins and lay hold of his mercy by a true faith His word shewes likewise his mercy there is not one attribute set down more in Scripture then mercy it is the name whereby he will be known Exod. 34. where he describes it and tells us his name what is the name of God his long suffering and mercy c. there is a long description of of God in that place David in Psal. 3. besides that which is in every Prophet almost hath the fame description of God to comfort Gods people in his time in Psal. 86. 103. 145. there is the same description of God as there is in Moses he is merciful and long suffering c. he describes himself to be so and his promises are promises of mercy At what time soever a sinner repents and without limitation of sins all sins shall be forgiven the blood of Christ purgeth us from all sin If there be no limitation of persons whomsoever of sins whatsoever or of time whensoever here is a ground that we should never despair God is the Father of mercies It is excellent that the Prophet hath in Isai. 55. 7. to prevent the thoughts of a dejected soul Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon I but I have abused mercy a long time I have lived in sin and committed great sins well notwithstanding that see how he answers it My thoughts are not your thoughts you are vindictive if a man offend you you are ready to aggravate the fault and to take revenge c. But my thoughts are not as your thoughts nor my wayes as your wayes saith the Lord for as far as the heaven is above the earth so are my thoughts above your thoughts and my wayes above your wayes We have narrow poor thoughts of mercy because we our selves are given to revenge and we are ready when we think of our sins to say can God forgive them can God be merciful to such c. My thoughts are not as your thoughts nor my wayes as your wayes It is good to consider this and it is a sweet meditation for the time undoubtedly will come that unlesse Gods mercy and Gods thoughts should be as him self is infinite unlesse his wayes should be infinitly above our wayes and his thoughts infinitly above ours in mercy certainly the soul would receive no comfort The soul of a Christian acquainted with the word of God knows that Gods mercy is as himself is infinite and his thoughts this way are as himself is infinite Therefore the Scripture sets down the mercies of God by all dimensions There is the depth of Wisedom but when he comes to speak of love and mercy as it is in Ephes. 3. Oh the depth and bredth and height of this Indeed for height it is higher then the heavens for depth it fetcheth the soul from the nether most-deep we have deep miserie out of the deep Icryed to thee yet notwithstanding his mercy is deeper then our misery O the depth of his mercy there is a depth of mercy deeper then any misery or rebellion of ours though we have sunk deep in rebellion And for the extent ofthem as I said before his mercy is over all his workes it extends to the utmost parts of the earth The scripture doth wonderfully enlarge his mercie beyond all dimensions whatsoever These things are to good purpose and it is a mercy to us that he sets forth himself in mercy in his word because the soul sometime or other when it is awakned as every one that God delights in is awakened first or last it needs all this it is all little enough God is merciful to those that are heavy laden that feel the burden of their sins upon their souls such as are touched with the sence of their sins God still meets them half way he is more ready to pardon then they are to ask mercy As we see in the prodigall when he had wasted all when he was as low as a man could be when he was come to huskes and when he had despised his fathers admonition yet upon resolution to return when he was stung with the sence of his sins his father meets him and entertains him he upbraids him not with his sin Take sin with all the aggravations we can yet if we repent and resolve uppon new courses there is comfort though we relapse into sin again and again if we must pardon 10. times 7. times as Christ saith certainly there cannot be more mercy in the Cistern then there is in the fountain there cannot be more mercy in us then there is in the Father of mercies as God is Take sin in the aggravations in the greatnesse of it Manasses sin Peters denying of his Master the thief on the crosse and Pauls persecution take sin as great as you will he is the father of mercies If we consider that God is infinite in mercy and that the scripture reveals him as the Father of mercies there is no question but there is abundance a world of comfort to any distressed soul that is ready to cast it self on Gods mercy For those that are converted that are in the state of Grace Is God the father of mercies Let this stir us up to imbrace mercy every day to live by mercy to plead mercy with God in our daily breaches to love and fear God because there is mercy with him that he might be feared It is a harder matter to make a daily sweet use of this then it is taken for Those that are the fittest subjects for mercy they think themselves furthest off from mercy Come to a broken soul who is catched in the snare whose conscience is on the rack he thinks alas there is no mercy for me I have been such a sinner God hath shewed me mercy before and now I have offended him again and again those that are the
into discomfort no but Blessed be the God of comfort that comforts us in all tribulation It is more to raise good out of evill then not to suffer evill to be at all It shews greater power it manifests greater goodness to triumph over ill when it suffered to be and so not to keep ill from us but to comfort us in it He doth not say for the time past which hath comforted us or which can comfort us if it please him no he doth it it is his use he doth it alway it springs from his love he never at any instant or moment of time forgets his Children and he saith not he doth comfort us in one or two or a few tribulations but he comforteth us in al tribulations of what kind or degree soever It may be Objected to cleare the sence a little he doth not alway comfort for then there could be no time of discomfort I Answer He doth alway comfort in some degree for take a Christian at the lowest yet he hath so much comfort as to keep him from sinking when he is at the depth of miserie there is a depth of mercy lower then he Out of the deep have I cryed unto thee Lord and this is a comfort that he hath in the middest of discomforts that he hath a spirit of prayer and if not a spirit of prayer yet a spirit of sighing and groaning to God and God hears the sighs and groans of his own spirit in his children When they cannot distinctly pray there is a spirit to look up to God Though thou kill me yet will I trust in thee saith Job in the middest of his miseries So though God more notoriously to the view of the world sometime doth comfort before we come to trouble that we may beare it the better and sometime he doth comfort more apparently after we come out yet notwithstanding in the middest of discomforts he doth alway comfort so farre as that we sink not into despaire there is somewhat to uphold the soule For when Solomon saith A wounded spirit who can beare that is none can beare it it is the greatest griefe then I would know what keeps a wounded spirit from sinking that it doth not despaire is it not a spirit stronger then the wounded spirit Is it not God that is greater then the wounded conscience Yes then there is comfort greater then the discomfort of a wounded conscience that keeps it from despaire those that finally despaire they are none of Gods So that take the words in what regard or in what sence you will yet thâ—…re is a sweet and comfortable sense of them and the Apostle might well say he is the God of all comfort that doth comfort us in all tribulation It is here a ground supposed that Gods Children are subject to tribulation We are subject here to tribulation of all kinds for God comforts us in all our tribulations we are here in a state therefore needing comfort because we are in tribulation And the second is that God doth answer our state God doth comfort his Children in all tribulation And the ground is from himself he is the God of comfort he doth but like himselfe when he doth it the God of comfort shews that he is so by comforting us in all tribulations First It is supposed that In this world we are in tribulations Indeed that I need not be long in we must at one time or other be in tribulation some or other For though in regard of outward afflictions we are free from them sometimes we have a few holy-dayes as we say yet notwithstanding there is in the greatest inlargements of Gods Children in this world somewhat that troubles their minds for either there is some desertion God withholds comfort from them in some measure he shews himself a stranger which humbles them much or else they have strong temptations of Sathan to sin by prosperity c. which grieves them as much as the outward cross or else their grievance is that they cannot serve God with that chearefulness of spirit Is there nothing who ever thou art that troubles thee as much as the cross in the day of affliction certainly there is somewhat or other that troubleth the soule of a Christian he is never out of one grievance or other The life of a Christian is as a web that is woven of good and ill he hath good daies and ill dayes he hath tribulations and comforts As St. Austin sayth very well between these two tribulation on our part and comfort on Gods part our life runs between these two our crosses and God comforts they are both mingled together There is no child of God but knowes what these things mean troubles either from friends or enemies or both domesticall or personal in bodie or mind one way or other That is supposed and it were not an unproper argument to the text for when he saith in all tribulations it is laid as a ground that every man suffers tribulation one way or other but I shall have fitter occasion after to enlarge this Again we see here that God comforts his Children in all tribulation And his comforts are answerable to their discomforts and beyond them they are stronger to master all opposites whatsoever and all grievances there could be no comfort else Alas what are all discomforts when God sets himself to comfort when he will be a God of comfort one look one glance of his fatherly countenance in Jesus Christ will banish all terrours whatsoever and make even a very dungeon to be a paradise he comforteth us in all tribulat on And this he doth as you may perceive by the unfolding of the words either by some outward thing applied to the outward want or crosse or by some inward reasons that are opposite to the inward maladie or by an inward presence His comforts are appliable to the tribulation and to the strength and length and variety of it We may know it by his course in this life what miserie are we subject to in this life but we have comfort fit for it so good is God We may reason thus very well if so be that in our pilgrimage here in this life of ours which is but the gallery as it were to heaven if in this short life which is but a way or passage we have both day and night so many comforts In the very night if we look up to heaven we see what glorious things there are towards the earth here on this fide the heaven the stars of the light c. And if so be upon the earth there be such comforts especially in the spring and summer time if the very earth the basest dreggs of the World yield such comfort and delights to all the senses then a man may reason very strongly what comforts shall we have at home If God by the creatures thus comfort us in our outward wants what are the inward comforts of his spirit here
else will Therefore let us every day be setting our selves in some good way for comfort is in comfortable courses and not in ill courses in Gods waies we shall have Gods comforts In those waies let us exercise the spiritual strength we have let us pray to God and performe the exercise of Religion with strength shew some zeal in it let us shew some zeal against sin if occasion be if it be in Gods work in Gods way Let a man set himself upon a good worke especially when it is in opposition for the honour of God and the peace of his conscience presently there is comfort upon it And that we may not be discouraged with the imperfection of our performances one way of daily comfort is to consider the condition of the covenant of Grace between God and us In the covenant of Grace our performances if they be sincere they are accepted and it is the perfection of the Gospel sincerity Sincerity will look God in the face with comfort because he is with the upright so much truth in all our dealings so much comfort And with sincerity labour for growth to grow better and better God in the Gospel meanes to bring us to perfection in heaven by little and little In the law there was present perfection required but in the Gospel God requires that we should come to perfection by little and little as Christ by little and little satisfyed for our sins and not all at once In the condition of the covenant of Grace we must live and grow by grace by little and little and not all at once The condition of the covenant of grace is not to him that hath strength of grace in perfection but if we believe and labour to walke with God if there be truth of Grace truth goes for perfection in the covenant of Grace We should labour for sound knowledge of the covenant of Grace that now we are freed from the rigor as well as from the curse of the law that though we have imperfections yet God will be our father and in this condition of imperfection he will be a pardoning father and lookes on our obedience though it be feeble and weak and imperfect yet being the obedience of children in the covenant of grace and he accepts of what is his owne and pardons what is ours And every day labour to preserve the comforts of the spirit that we have not to grieve the spirit for comfort comes with the spirit of God as heat accompanies the fire As wheresoever fire is there is heat so wheresoever the spirit of God is there is comfort because the spirit of God is God and God is with comfort wheresoever comfort is God is and wheresoever God is there is comfort If we would have comfort continually every day let us carefully watch that we give way to the spirit of God by good actions and meditations and exercises And by no meanes grieve the spirit or resist the spirit for then we resist comfort If we speake any thing that is ill we lose our comfort for that time conscience will check us we have grieved the spirit If we heare any thing with applause and are not touched with it we lose our comfort conscience will tell us we are dead-hearted and not affected as we should be there is a great deal of flesh and corruption that is affected with such rotten discourse And so if we venture upon occasions we shall grieve the spirit either if we speak somewhat to satisfie others that are nought or if we hear somewhat that is ill from others Want of wisdome in this kind doth make us go without comfort many times want of wisdom to single out our companie or else if we be with such to do that that may please them and grieve the spirit and hinder our own comfort These and such like directions if we would observe we might walk in a course of comfort the God of comfort hath prescribed this in the book of comfort These are the courses for Gods children to walk in a comfortable way till they come to heaven More especially if we would at any time take a more full measure of comfort then take the book of God into your hand those are comforts that refresh the soul single out some speciall portion of scripture and there you shall have a world of comfort As for example let a man single out the epistle to the Romans if a man be in any grievance whatsoever what a world of comfort is there fitting for every maladie there is a method how to come to comfort There St. Paul in the beginning first strips all men of confidence of any thing in themselves and tells them that no man can be saved by works Jewes nor Gentiles but all by the righteousnesse of God in Christ All are deprived of the Glorie of God Jewes and Gentiles every bodie And when we are brought to Christ he tells us in the later end of the third Chapter that by Christ we have the forgivenesse of all our former sins whatsoever he is the propitiation for our sins In the 4. Chapter he comforts us by the example of Abraham and David that they were justified without works by faith not by works of their own but by laying hold of the promises of comfort and salvation meerly by Christ and all that saith St. Paul is written for us But in the first Chapter especially because all the miseries of this life come from the first Adam because we are Children of the first Adam death and miserie comes from that he opposeth the comfort in the second Adam and he shewes that there is more comfort by the second Adam then there is discomfort by the first Righteousnesse in the second Adam reigns to life everlasting and Glorie Sin and miserie came by the first but there is the pardon of all sin by the second Adam he doth excellently oppose them in the latter end of that Chapter In the begining of the fifth Chapter he shewes there the method and descent of joy Being justified by faith in Christ we have peace with God Considering that by the righteousnesse of Christ we are freed from sin We have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we have boldnesse to the Throne of Grace and we rejoyce in tribulation knowing that tribulation brings forth patience and patience experience and experience hope He sets himself there of purpose to comfort in all tribulation and he saith in these things we rejoyce We rejoyce in tribulation I but for our sins after our conversion after we are in the state of Grace what comfort is there for them there is excellent comfort in the fifth of the Romans If when we were enemies he gave his son for us if he saved us by the death of Christ when we were enemies much more Christ being alive and in heaven he will keep it for us and keep us to salvation now when we are
flesh is purged and the Spirit strengthened and weaning from the world is wrought and a desire to heaven By the daily crosses we suffer as men not for Religion we are much bettered and those in some sort may be called the sufferings of Christ because by them we are conformed to Christ more in holinesse we grow more out of love with the World and more heavenly minded This distinction is necessary to know which are best the sufferings of Christians as good men It is a point I say of wonderous comfort that we should be conformable in our sufferings with our Head Christ Jesus our Glorified head in heaven is it not a wonderous comfort Nay is it not a glory It is a wondrous glory that God will set us apart to do any thing that God will take any thing of us much more that he will single us out to be Champions in his quarrel and more that he will triumph in us that the comfort shall abound To give an instance if a Monarch should redeem a slave a Traitor from Prison and take him to fight in the Quarrel of his own son to be his Champion were it not an honour so the very sufferings for Christ are an encouragement the disgraces and whatsoever they are that we suffer in a good cause they are ensigns of honour they are badges of honour of Christian knighthood If a Golden Fleece or a Garter or such things be accounted so highly of and glorified in because they are favours c. much more should the sufferings for Christ be glorified in as ensigns of the love God and of our Christian profession when we fight under Christs Banner we are like to Christ we are conformable to him he went before and we follow his steps and if we suffer with him we shall be Glorified with him Therefore be not discouraged that which we think to be matter of discouragement it should be our Crown it is our Crown to suffer reproach in a good cause It is a sign God favours us when he takes our credit our goods or our life to honour himself by Is it not an honour to us doth he take any thing from us but he gives us better he takes our goods but he gives us himself he takes our liberty but he gives us enlargement of conscience he takes our life but he gives us heaven if he take any thing from us for to seal his truth and stand out in his quarrel as Christ saith he gives an hundred fold in this World that is a gracious spirit of contentment and comfort We have God himself hath not he more that hath the spring then he that hath twenty Cisterns Those that have riches and place and friends they have Cisterns but he that suffers for God and for Christ he hath Christ he hath God he hath the spring to go to if all be taken from him he hath God the spring to go to if all particular Beams he hath the Sun It is durable wondrous comfort to suffer for Christs sake Therefore let it encourage us in a good course notwithstanding all the opposition we meet with in the World let us here learn what is our duty let the malicious world judge or say or do what they will if God be on our side who can be against us And if we suffer any thing for Christ he suffers with us and in us and he will triumph in us over all these sufferings at last I will add no more to set an edge upon that I have said then this they are the sufferings of Christ we should be many wayes encouraged to suffer for him For did not he suffer for us that which if all the creatures in heaven and earth had suffered they would have sunk under it the wrath of God And what good have we by his sufferings are we not freed from Hell and Damnation and have we not Title to Heaven hath he suffered in his person so much for us and shall not we be content to suffer for him and his mystical body that in his own body suffered so much for us Again when we suffer in his quarrel we suffer not only for him that suffered for us but we suffer for him that sits at the right hand of God that is glorious in heaven The King of Kings and Lord of Lords Our sufferings are sufferings for him that hath done so much for us and for him that is so able now to over-rule all to crush our enemies for him that is so able now to minister comfort by his Spirit This is a notable encouragement that they are the sufferings of Christ that is so glorious as he is and that will reward every suffering and every disgrace we shall be paid well for every suffering we shall lose nothing And will not this encourage us likewise to suffer for Christs sake because he will be with us in all our sufferings he will not leave us alone it is his cause and he will stand by his own cause he will maintain his own quarrel he will cause comfort to increase Is it not an encouragement to defend a Princes quarrel in his own sight when he stands by to abet us it would encourage a dull mettle When we suffer for Christs cause we have Christ to defend us he is with us in all our sufferings to bear us up he puts his shoulder under by his holy Spirit to support us We cannot live long in this world we owe God a death we owe nature a death the sentence of death is past upon us we cannot enjoy the comfort of this World long and for favour and applause of the World we must leave it and it will leave us we know not how soon and this meditation should inforce us to be willing however it go with us for any thing here for life or goods or friends or credit and reputation or whatsoever to be willing to seal the cause of Christ with that which is dearest to us If we suffer with him we shall be glorified with him The very sufferings of Christ are better then the most glorious day of the greatest Monarch in the world that is not a Christian it is better to suffer with Christ then to joy with the world The very abasement of St. Paul was better then the triumph of Nero. Let Moses be judge he judged it the best end of the ballance the very sufferings and reproach of Christ and of Religion is better then the best thing in the world the worst thing in Christianity is better then the best thing out of Christ. The best thing out of Christ is the honour of a King the honour of a Prince to be a Kings Son c. but the reproach of Christ for a good cause is better then the best thing in the world I say let Moses be judge if we will not believe it our selves till we feel it the worst day of a Christian is better then the best day of
a Carnal man for he hath the presence of Gods Spirit to support him in some measure Therefore let us not be afraid before hand fear nothing saith the Apostle that thou shalt suffer And with Moses let us not be ashamed of the rebuke of Christ but Let us go out of the Campe with Christ learning our reproach And because we know not what God may call us to let us entertain presently a resolution to endure whatsoever in this world God calls us to to passe through thick and thin to passe through all kind of waies to the hope of our Glorious calling if by any way by any meanes saith St. Paul I may attain the resurrection of the dead If by any meanes I may come to heaven by fair death or by violent death he scorned reproach if by any means he might be happie And for others it is a wondrous quailing to the spirits of men that offer any wrong if it be but a disgrace a scoffe is a persecution to a Christian for a good cause when wicked men oppose a Christian in a good cause and course let us learn what they do they kick against the pricks Do they know what they do when they reproach Christians it is the reproach of Christ. What was Ishmaels scorning a persecution Christ is scorned in his members will he endure this at their hands When good causes are opposed Christ is opposed and Christ is scoffed This doth enable our suffering being an abasing of it self that Christ accounts it done to him Base men of the world they think when they scoffe at goodnesse and wrong the Image of God in his Children they think they deride and despise a companie of weak creatures that they scoffe at silly persons meaner then themselves but they are deceived they scoffe Christ in them and he takes it so Saul Saul why persecutest thou me The foot is trode on on the earth and the head speaks from heaven It is the reproach of Christ and it will be laid to thy charge at the day of judgment that thou hast scoffed and persecuted and reproached Christ in his members it will be a heavy indictment Men should not regard what they conceive of things but what he that must be their judge will conceive of things ere long and he interprets it as done to his own person It is true both of good and ill whatsoever good we do to a Christian as a Christian to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple Christ takes it as done to himself Matth. 25. In as much as you have done it to these you have done it to mee It should animate us to do good offices to those that are Christs what we do to them we do to Christ. Let us be willing to refresh the bowels of Christ in his members at home or abroad as occasion serves to maintain the quarrel of Christ as much as we can to relieve Christ he comes to us in the poore and asks relief he that shed his blood for us he that dyed for us he that hath given us all asks a little pittance for himself that we for his sake would be so good to him in his members as to do thus and thus that for Jonathans sake we would regard poore lame Mephibosheth his son Christ though he be gone he hath some Mephibosheths some poore weak members and what offices we do them he accounts done to himself it runs on his score he will be accountable for every good word we speak in his cause for every defence for every act of bountie It is a point of large meditation to consider that the Crosses and Afflictions of Christians they are the sufferings of Christ. Do but consider the spirit of God intended in this phrase to dignifie all disgraces and indignities that are put upon us in a good cause and quarrel could he have said more in few words he calls them not disgraces or losses or death but he puts such a comfortable title upon them that might make us in love with suffering any thing and set us on fire to endure any thing in a good cause they are the sufferings of Christ. As the sufferings of Christ abound so our consolations c. The third general point is That our consolations are proportionable to our sufferings Our consolations abound We suffer in this World that is hard I but they are the sufferings of Christ there is sweetnesse And then another degree is our consolations abound as our sufferings abound Consolation is as I shewed before in the unfolding of the word an inward support of the soul against trouble felt or feared and it must be stronger then the grievance or else the action of comfort will not follow There is a disproportion between the agent and the patient in all prevailing actions or else there is no prevailing if the comfort be not above the maladie it is no comfort And therefore no comforts but divine comforts will stand at length because in all other comforts sedet medecinum morbo the maladie is above the remedie they may make glorious pretences as the Philosophers do Plutarch and Seneca and the rest but they are as Apothecaries boxes they have goodly titles but there is nothing within Alas when there is trouble in the conscience awakned with the sight of sin and the displeasure of God what can all those precepts compose and frame the soul in petty troubles They have their place and surely the neglect of them many times is that that makes the crosse heavier but alas in divine troubles in terror of conscience it must be divine comfort it must be of like nature or else the effect of comfort will never follow and those be the comforts that he meanes here As our troubles and afflictions abound so our consolations our divine supports they abound the point is this that Our comforts are proportionable to our sufferings What did I say proportionable it is above all proportion of suffering As it is said Rom. 8. the afflictions of this life are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed And indeed in this life the consolations abound as the sufferings abound For God keeps not all for the life to come he gives us a taste a grape of Canaan before we come to Canaan as the Israelites they sent for grapes to taste the goodnesse of the land and they had them brought to them by the spies by which they might guesse of the fruitfulnesse and sweetnesse of the land it self so the taste and relish that Gods Children have of that fulnesse which is reserved in another world it is answerable and proportionable to their sufferings and in the proportion the exceeding part is of comfort there is an exceeding if not for the present yet afterwards The Ark did rise together with the water and comforts rise together with matter of suffering But what is the reason of the proportion why the greatest comforts follow the greatest sufferings
despight of the world that will beare the cross of Christ For the other as their jollity increaseth in the world so their crosses and troubles shall increase As it is said Revel 18. 17. of mysticall Babylon the Church of Rome that hath flourished in the world a great while and sate as a Queen and blessed her self As she gloried herself and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her So it is true of every wicked man that is in an evill course and will be and as the Scripture phrase is blesseth himself in an evil course they shall be sure of the curse of God and not of comfort for in what proportion they have delighted themselves in this world in sin in that proportion they shall have torment of conscience if conscience be awaked in this world and in that proportion they shall have torment in the world to come As sin is growing so rods are growing for them wicked men saith St. Paul they grow worse and worse the more they sin the more they may they sink in rebellion and the more they sink in rebellion the more they sink in the state of damnation they fill up the measure of their sins and treasure up the wrath of God against the day of wrath Whosoever thou art that livest in a sinfull course and wilt do so in spight of Gods Ordinance in spight of the motions of the spirit that hast the good motions of the spirit knocking at thy soule and yet wilt rather refuse comfort then take comfort together with direction go on still in this thy wicked course but remember as thy comforts increase in this world so thy torment is increasing And here is the disproportion between Gods children and others they have their sufferings first and their comfort afterward but others have their pleasure first and their torment after theirs are for a time but others for ever Thus we see what we may comfortably observe from this that comforts increase as crosses increase A Word of the fourth and last point How comes this to pass that as our afflictions abound so our consolations abound They abound by Chrst saith the Apostle God the Father he is the God of comfort the Holy-Ghost is the Comforter but how comes this to pass that we that are not the Objects of comfort but of confusion should have God the Father to be the God of comfort and the Holy-Ghost to be our comforter Oh it is that Jesus Christ the great peace-maker hath satisfied God and procured the Holy-Ghost for the holy-Ghost is procured by the satisfaction and death of Christ and he was sent after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. Therefore Christ is called the consolation of Israel and those that waited for Christ waited for the consolation of Israel All comfort is hid in Christ he is the store-house of comfort we have it through him and by him and in him For that God is the Father of comfort it is because Christ is our Mediatour and Intercessour in Heaven that the Holy-Ghost is the comforter it is because Christ sent him and the comforts of the holy-Ghost are fetched from Christ from the death of Christ or the ascention of Christ from some argument from Christ. Whatsoever comforteth the soule the Holy-Ghost doth it by fetching some argument from Christ from his satisfaction from his worth from his intercession in Heaven something in Christ it is So Christ by his Spirit doth comfort and the reasons fetched by the Spirit are from Christ therefore it is by Christ. What is the reason that a Christian soule doth not feare God as a consuming fire but can look upon him with comfort It is because God hath received satisfaction by Christ. What is the reason that a Christian soule feares not Hell but thinks of it with comfort Christ hath conquered Hell and Satan What is the reason that a Christian feares not death Christ by death hath overcome death and him that had the power of death the Devill Christ is mine saith the Christian soule therefore I do not feare it but think of it with comfort because a Christian is more then a Conquerour over all these What is the reason that a Christian is not afraid of his corruptions and sins He knows that God for Christs sake will pardon them and that the remainder of his corruptions will worke to his humiliation and to his good All shall work for the best to them that love God What is the reason that there is not any thing in the world but it is comfortable to a Christian When he thinks of God he thinks of him as a Father of comfort when he thinks of the Holy-Ghost he thinks of him as a spirit of comfort when he thinks of Angels he thinks of them as his attendants when he thinks of Heaven he thinks of it as of his inheritance he thinks of Saints as a communion whereof he is partaker whence is all this By Christ who hath made God our Father the holy-Ghost our Comforter who hath made Angels ours Saints ours heaven ours earth ours Devils ours death ours all ours in issue For God being turned in love to us all is turned our crosses are no curses now but comforts and the bitterest crosses yield the sweetst comforts All this is by Christ that hath turned the course of things and hid blessings in the greatest crosses that ever were And this he did in himself before he doth it in us for did not his greatest crosses tend to his greatest glory who ever in the world was abased as our head Christ Jesus was that made him crie My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee All the Creatures in the world would have sunk under the sufferings that Christ indured what abasement to the abasement of Christ and what glorie to the glorie of Christ Phil 2. He humbled himself to the death of the cross wherefore God gave him a name above all names that at the name of Jesus euery knee should bow both of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Now as it was in our head his greatest abasement ushered in his greatest glorie so it shall be in us our greatest crosses are before our greatest comforts he is our President he is the exemplarie cause as well as the efficient working cause it is by Christ all this that consolations abound in us it was performed first in him and shall be by him by his Spirit to the end of the world The use that we are to make of this is that in all our sufferings before we come to Heaven we should look to Christ he hath turned all things let us study Christ and fetch comfort from him our flesh was abased in him our flesh is glorified in him now in Heaven in his person And so it must be in our own persons our flesh must be abased and then as he is glorious in Heaven so shall we be in our selves That very
Spirit that raised and advanced him at the lowest that very spirit there being but one spirit in the head and members in our greatest abasement shall vouchsafe us the greatest advancement that we can look for to sit at the right hand of God to reigne with Christ for if we suffer with him we shall reign with him And hence you may have a reason likewise why Christians have no more comfort they doe not studie Christ enough they consider not Christ and the neernesse wherein Christ is to them and they to Christ that both make one Christ they doe not consider how Christ hath sweetned all he hath turned God and turned all to us he hath made God our Father and in him all things favourable unto us so that now the fire is our friend the Stone and the Gout and all diseases disgrace and temptation all are at peace and league with us all is turned in the use and issue to good to the help and comfort of Gods Children All things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 2 Cor. 3. ult There is not the worst thing but it is at peace with us because the malignant power it hath in order to damnation is taken away now it doth not hurt us but there is a soveraigne curing power to turne it to good I confesse Gods Children are discomforted but then they wrong their principles they wrong their grounds their religion their Saviour they wrong all the comforts they have interest in because they do not improve them when occasion serves As Job is checked Hast thou forgot the consolations of the Almighty or why dost thou forget them so if we have consolations and forget them and dote and pore upon our grievance it is just with God to leave us comfortless not that we want any comfort but we flatter our grievance and forget our comfort Let us change our object and when we have looked upon our grievance and been humbled in the sight of our sins let us look upon the promises let us look upon Christ in glory and see our selves in Heaven triumphing with him What can terrifie a Soul not Death it self when it sees it self in Christ Triumphing Faith sees me as well Triumphing in Heaven and sitting at the Right Hand of God as it doth Christ for it knowes I am a Member of Christ and whatsoever is between me and that happiness that is reserved for me in Heaven I shall triumph over it Christ triumphed in his own person over death Hell sin the Grave the Devil and she will triumph in me his mysticall body what he hath done in himself he will doe in me This faith will overcome the world and the Devill and Hell and all that is between us and Heaven A Christian that sees himself sitting at the right hand of God with Christ triumphing with him he is discouraged at nothing for faith that makes things to come present it sees him conquering alreadie Let us be exhorted to joy Rejoyce and again I say rejoyce we have reason to do so if we look to our grounds but when we yield to Satan and our own flesh we robb God of his glory and our selves of comfort but we may thank our selves for it But I come to the sixth verse wherein the Apostle inlargeth himself by shewing the end of his sufferings in regard of them by setting downe both parts both affliction and comfort VERS VI. Whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and salvation IT is much in every thing how the mind is prepared to receive what is spoken the Apostle therefore to make way for himself in their hearts he removes therefore scandall from his sufferings and he shews that it was so farre that they should take offence at it that they ought to do as he did to bless God for it for as the sufferings of Christ abounded in him so his comfort abounded And because they should think themselves no way hurt by his sufferings and base usage in the world he tels them in the verse that all was for their good no man should be offended at his own good they had no reason to take scandall at that which was for their good but saith he if you think basely of me for my sufferings you think basely of your own comfort for my sufferings are for your good and my comforts are for your good whether I suffer or be comforted it is or you The crosse is a distastfull thing to us and likewise the crosse in others is a distastefull thing not onely distastfull and bitter to us but shamefull St. Paul knowing this because he would as I said work himself into their good conceit that he might prevaile with them for their good saith he you ought not to think a whit the worse of me for this for all is for you So you see the scope of the words Whether we be afflicted it is for your c. But first he speakes of affliction alone and then of comfort alone If we be afflicted it is for your good and if we be comforted it is for your good His reason is because sometimes afflictions appeare without comfort therefore he saith not If we be comforted onely it is for your good but if we be afflicted it is for your good Sometimes comfort is before our afflictions that we may indure it the better God cheares us to it Sometimes God sheds his Spirit in affliction that there is abundance of comfort in it but for the most part it comes after after we have waited but in it there is always such a measure of comfort that supports us that we sink not yet the speciall degree of comfort usually comes after therefore he speaks of affliction in the first place If I be afflicted it is for you c. The Point is easie that The afflictions of the Saints are for the good of others The afflictions of Gods Church are Gods peoples especially the afflictions of Pastors and Leaders of Gods Armie God singles out some to suffer for the good of others the good especially of consolation and salvation for these two goods How can this be that the afflictions of Gods people are for the consolation and salvation of others I answer many wayes as we shall see afterwards more particularly but onely now to make way Afflictions are for the good and comfort of others because we have their example in suffering to traine us up how to suffer Example is a forcible kinde of teaching therefore saith the Apostle our afflictions are for you to lead and teach you the way how to suffer Words are not enough especially in matter of suffering there must be some example therefore Christ from Heaven came not onely to redeem us but to teach us not onely by words but by example how to doe and suffer willingly and chearfully and stoutly in obedience to God as he
if we had eyes to see it So likewise his Ordinances are to gather this Church which he hath chosen from all the world to himselfe the Ordinances of the Ministrie and of the Sacraments the suffering of Ministers the doing and suffering of Christians all is for their good as we see in this place I suffer for your consolation and comfort Heaven and earth stands for them the Pillars of Heaven and earth would be taken asunder and all would come to a Chaos an end would be of all if the number of them were gathered that are the blessed people of God for whom al things are The doings and sufferings of Gods people we doe not know indeed that are Ministers who belong to God and who do not but our intent is to do good to those that are Gods and the issue proves so the rest God hath his end in it to harden them and bring them to confusion to take excuse from them but the reall good of all our pains and suffering is the Elects Let us examine what good we take by Ordinances of God and by the sufferings of the present Church and the sufferings of the former Church doe their examples animate and quicken and encourage us to the like courses It is a signe we are elected of God there is no greater signe of a good estate in grace then a gratious heart to draw good out of the examples of others and to draw good out of every thing that befals us because Gods end in election and his manner of providence is to guide all to their good Again we learn another thing likewise how God over-rules in his providence the projects of carnall men of the Devil and his instruments and Agents and Factors God over-rules all things that which in it self is ill and in the intendment of the inflicter is ill yet God turnes it to the good of others and the good of them that suffer too Satan intends no such matter as it is said Isa. 10. Nebuchadnezzar thinks no such thing Ashur the rod of my wrath he intends no such matter they intend not the consolation of Gods when they wrong the Saints of God and so exercise their patience and Grace No they intend their hurt and confusions It is no matter what they intend but God at the first created light out of darkness and in his providence doth great matters by small meanes in his providence over his Church he doth raise contraries out of contraries he turns the wicked proiects of men to contrary ends and makes all serviceable to his own end In state-policie he is accounted the wisest man that can make his enemies instrumentall to his owne purpose that can make others serve his own turne to work his own ends by others that are his opposites and he had need of a great reaching head that can doe so The great providence of Heaven doth thus God is the wisest Polititian in the world All other policie is but a beam from that Sun he can make instrumentall and serviceable to him his very enemies And this is the torment of Satan that God over shoots him in his own bow he over-reacheth him in his own policie where he thinks to doe most harme he doth most good in those afflictions whereby he thinks to quell the courage of the Church God doth exceeding good to them and enlargeth the bounds of the Church this way It is an ordinary speech The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church The Word of God is the seed of the Church how then is the blood of the Martyrs and Sufferers the seed of the Church Thus the Word of God is the seed of the Church how As it is in the Bible in the book No as it is published in preaching much more as it is published in confession and much more as it is published and sealed in Martyrdome by suffering the Word of God so laid open as not onely spoken but confessed and practised in life and not onely so but sealed by induring any thing thus it is the seed and works strongly God over-rules all inferiours though they have contrary motions in their own intent to his yet he brings them about to his end As we see the Heavens have a contrary motion to the first Heaven that carries the rest the primum mobile yet they are turned about by another motion contrary to the bent of themselves they goe one way and are carryed another As we see in the wheels of the Clock one runs one way another another all make the Clock strike all serve the intent of Clock-maker so one runns one way and another another Carnall men offer disgrace and disparagement to Gods people their intent is to overthrow all to disgrace and to trample on the cause of Religion but God useth contrary wheels to make the Clock strike all turnes in the issue to his end Therefore though we say in our common speech that the Devill is the God of this world it is the Scripture phrase and it is so in regard of the wicked that are under him yet he is a God under a God there is but one Monarch of the World he is a God that hath not power over Swine further then he is suffered It is a point of wondrous comfort that though we be thus used yet there is an active providence there is one Monarch one great King that rules all It is a ground of patience and contentment in whatsoever we suffer not to look to the next instrument but look to the over-ruling cause that will turn all in the issue to our good This Joseph comforted his Brethren with you sent me and of an ill mind too but God turned it to good It was no thank to them yet it was no matter he comforted them in this that God turned their malice to his good and to their good too for he was sent as a Steward to provide for them And it is one ground why to think more moderately in regard of anger fiercenesse against wicked men it is a ground of pittying of them for alas poore soules what do they though they intend it of malice they are but instruments and shall be over-ruled to do good contrary to their meaning as St Paul saith here Whether I be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation The worst intents and designes of the enemies of Religion was for the consolation and salvation of the Corinthians It is good to think of this before hand it is a ground of patience and not onely so but of comfort and joy which is a degree above patience God over-rules all thus Therefore we should quietly cast our selves wholly upon him willing to doe and suffer whatsoever he will have us knowing that he will direct all to the good of the Church to our comfort and his own glory Again a further use may be this to teach us to communicate our estate to others because it is for their
if all had been crucified and risen in him The meaning is therefore Whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation to help it forward to help forward your comfort by way of example and not by way of satisfaction and merit any kind of way Doe but consider this one reason and so I will end the point there was no Saint that ever merited heaven by his own satisfaction therefore he could not doe good to others by way of satisfaction how do you prove that By that excellent speech in Rom. 8. The sufferings of this world are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed All that they suffered was not worthy of the glory to be revealed therefore they could not by any satisfaction of their own merit heaven for themselves what should we speak of others then to do any good to others I mean by way of satisfaction But he shews this in the next words more clearly how good is done to others Whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation Which is effectuall in enduring the same sufferings that we also suffer It is read in the Margine and most go that way and the oldest Interpreters too some Translators have a word as fit in the margine as in the text oft times and they leave it to the Readers to take which they will It is good and usefull both wayes but the most go that way and it is more clear The meaning is this Whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation salvation which salvation of yours is wrought out in induring the same sufferings that we also suffer If it be read effectual as it is in the text not in the margine then it is thus If we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation the assurance whereof in you is effectuall to make you indure the sufferings that we suffer Now here must be a thing cleared How salvation is wrought by affliction I answer Salvation is wrought by Christ by way of merit and procurement and purchase and satisfaction to divine justice but salvation in regard of the profession of it is wrought by afflictions that is we come to have it by this way We may consider salvation in purchase and title and salvation in possession and investing into it salvation in title and purchase is wrought by the death and sufferings of Christ who hath this preminence to be called and stiled a Saviour but though it be gotten by him it is not possessed but by a certain way and course That salvation the title whereof we have by Christ it is not possessed or entred into but by a course of suffering and doing God hath measured out so many holy actions for every Christian to doe and so many things for every Christian to suffer so many grievances if he be of yeares of discretion God hath a way to save Children which leane to his wisedom but this way God saveth men they have a cup measured to them they have so many afflictions to suffer before they be possessed of that which Christ hath purchased so it is wrought in regard of possession in suffering the same afflictions that others suffer There are two ways doing good and suffering for good that are the beaten way to obtain salvation which salvation is wrought by the satisfaction of Christ. Marke here he saith our sufferings tend to your comfort and salvation How because it helps you to indure the same suffering by seeing others suffer and by induring the like we come to the possession of salvation in the end because by seeing them suffer we are incouraged to suffer The point hence is this that Whatsoever good we take by the sufferings of any it is by stirring up and strengthning some grace in us Whatsoever good we take by any set Christ aside from whom we take good likewise by way of example as well as merit but in a singular respect by way of merit but for others whatsoever good we take it is not direct it is not immediate but onely by stirring up some grace by strengthning some grace in us There is no good derived from others to me but by confirming and strengthning some grace so I come to have good by them saith St. Paul here My sufferings increase your salvation but it is because my sufferings stirre you up to suffer the same afflictions You learn of me by my carriage and example to suffer and so by suffering that which I suffer you come to salvation This is sufficient to convince that idle opinion that I spake of before that the sufferings of the Saints are not conveyed by way of pardon to the ignorant people that know not what Saint or pardon or suffering or merit is but the way of comfort by the suffering of others is by confirming and strengthning some grace of patience or comfort c. in them All the good that is in the father cannot help the son except he tread in his fathers steps If we go not the same way as others do to heaven in the same graces all their sufferings will do us no good but serve to condemn us The point is cleare because it serves to enlighten other points I doe but name it But that which I will a little more stand on is that salvation is wrought by suffering We come to the possession of salvation by Patience Faith of salvation by Christ stires us up to suffer till we come to the possession of that that we have title to Mark how these hang together first a Christian knows that God will save him by the merits and satisfaction and obedience of Christ his surety the assured perswasion of this salvation that he hath title to by Christ because the possession of it is deferred till the next world and there is a distance of time and that time is incombred with afflictions hereupon comes a necessity of some speciall grace to carrie us along till we be fully invested into that that we have title to by Christ there must be some grace between faith and the possession of heaven I am assured of the possession of heaven in my first conversion but I am not invested into it it is deferred there is a distance of time which is afflictive for hope deferred maketh the heart faint A thing that we have right and title to deferred afflicts the soul and the deferring of good hath the respect of ill good deferred puts upon it the consideration of ill for it is a grievance to want a good I have a right unto Now it is not only deferred but my life is an exercised life with many actions and sufferings what grace must bear me up between me and heaven and in the tediousness of the time prolonged especially the grace of induring Therefore faith in Christ by which I have a title to heaven that stirs up hope and hope stirs up patience and that helps me in the way to heaven it helps
us for happiness to sharpen our desire to happiness to make it pretious to us Certainly it is a ground not onely of patience and meekness but of joy and comfort in all the things we suffer Will a Patient be angrie with his Chyrurgion for searching of his wound he knows that that is the way to cure him Will any man take offence at the Gold-Smith for purging his mass they know that is the way to purifie it and fetch out the dross This is the method in nature the ground muft be plowed and prepared and then comes the harvest let us be content with this method and rejoyce in any suffering knowing it will have a blessed issue and not to think much at suffering any thing for a good cause in our selves or by way of sympathy or support with others because this is the high way to a better estate if we suffer with the Church or for the Church any kinde of way we shall be comforted with the Church It is that which sweetens the cross that we are under hope of better still Who would not indure a little grievance in the way to have honour in the end to have ill usage in an Inne and to go to a Kingdom All our discomforts and afflictions are but by the way here and crosses are necessary for Travellers and here we are but in a travelling estate It should I say incourage us not to take offence at any thing that God exerciseth us with in this world nor to take scandal at the afflictions of the Church And then it should strike terrour to those that will not indure so much as a scratch a scoff a word a chip of the cross that will indure nothing doe they know that this is Gods order do they avoid crosses in any degree and do they think to have comfort No God will not change his order for them he hath established this order and heaven and earth shall faile rather then Gods order shall not be sure If we will have comfort we must suffer if we will avoid suffering and think to go to heaven another way then God hath ordained we may take our own way but we must give him leave to take his way in comforting advancing whom hewil and that will not be us because we wil not frame our selvs to his order we must not look for hisdignitie if we wil not suffer with him we shal not reign with him The next thing observable in the order is this that Those that suffer as they should are sure of comfort There is a threefold conformity with Christ in suffering grace glory Those that are not conformable to him in suffering they cannot be conformable to him in grace and if they be not in grace they shall not in glory He took upon him our nature abased first and our nature purified and our nature glorious he hath now in heaven so our nature in us must keep this order First it must be abased as our flesh was in him and then filled with grace by little and little and then glorious as our nature is in him If we will not suffer our flesh to be abased and exercised with afflictions and let God worke his own good work as he pleaseth this way we are not conformable to Christ who was first abased and then advanced what was wrought in his blessed flesh must be wrought in his mysticall body in all his Members by little and little Therefore those that are tender and way-ward to indure any thing when God cals them to it they are enemies to their own comfort God hath set down this order if they do not partake of the sufferings of the Church they shall not partake of the comfort Oh it is a cursed estate to be out of the condition of Gods people and it is a comfortable thing to have part with those that are good yea even if it be in suffering with them It is better to have communion with Gods people in suffering then to have communion with the wicked in the world in reigning and triumphing And that is the reason that the spirit of God in the Prophet made him desire Deale with me Lord as thou usest to deale with those that feare thy name he knew he deals well enough with them visit me with the salvation of thy children he knew that was a speciall salvation so to have God deal with us as he deals with his and to visit us in mercy and love as he visits his own it is a speciall favour It is better to beare the crosse with them that we may partake with them in the comfort then to have all the comforts that the wicked have and to share with them in the misery afterward Therefore let us be content to share with Gods people in their suffering when we heare of any that suffer for a just cause though we have no sufferings of our own let us beare a part with them and with the bond of the communion of Saints help what we may And it is as true on the contrary if we partake with the wicked in their sins we shall partake with them in their punishment Therefore the Scripture saith Come out of Babylon my people lest if you partake of her sins so you partake of her punishments Now Atheisticall people think it nothing to enter into league and amity and society with prophane people that are professedly so not onely by weakness but those that are stigmatized but what saith the Scripture and the Holy Ghost doth not trifle with us Come out of Babylon my people lest you partake of her plagues which is not meant so much locally to come out of the place as in disposition to come out in respect of liking and converse and secret intimate communion Lots sons in law they thought it was but trifling they gibed as Atheists do now when they hear the Ministers incourage people to make much of religion and to set against those that are opposite they think they are inforced to it and it is upon mistake c. though it be as palpable as the light of the sun they deal as Lots sons in law when he warned them to come out of Sodome and he was pulled out they would believe nothing till fire came down from Heaven and destroyed them all it was too late then Therefore let us hearken to the counsell of the Angell let us not make this a matter of scorne a light matter but as we desire to have no part in their confusion so avoid their courses The Scripture is terrible to those that after the breaking out of the light will be such there is not more direct Scriptures against any kind of men then those that willfully cleave to Antichrist therefore we should not esteem it a light matter but think of it seriously indeed And not onely in respect of them but all wicked society were it not pitie that men should be severed from them hereafter
be at the cost with us to exercise us It is a ground not onely of patience but of thankfulnesse when God humbles us be not discontent man grudge not murmur not God doth a work that seems strange to thee and which is not his own proper work that he may do his own work that he may bring thee nearer to himself why dost thou murmur at thy own good The Patient cries out of the Physitian that he torments him he hears him well enough but he will not be advised by his patient he means to advise him and to rule him he would faine have comfort he is in pain and cries for ease but his time is not yet come So let us wait and not murmur under crosses God is doing one work to bring to passe another he brings us out of our selves that he may bring us nearer to himself And another Use that we may make of it let us examine our selves whether our afflictions and crosses have had this effect in us to bring us to trust in him more if they have all is well but if they make us worse that we fret and murmur and feel no good by them it is an ill sign for God doth bring us low that we may not trust in our selves but in him Quem praesentia mala non corrigunt c. Whom the presence of ill and grievance amends not they bring to eternal grievance This is Ahaz saith the Scripture a strange man a wicked King that notwithstanding God followed him with judgements yet he grew worse and worse This is Ahaz he might well be branded When a man belongs to God every thing brings him nearer to God when a man is brought to be more humble and more careful and more watchful every way to be more zealous more heavenly minded it is a blessed sign that God then is working a blessed work to force him out of himself and to bring him nearer himself to trust in him This we cannot too much consider of It should teach us likewise this that we judge not amisse of the generation of the righteous when we see God much humbling them when we see him follow them with sicknesse with troubles and disgraces in the world perhaps with terrour of consience with descertions be not discouraged if he be thy friend censure him not add not affliction to his affliction is not his affliction enough thou needest not to add thy unjust censure as Job said to his friends The more we are afflicted of God the more good he intends to work to us the end is to bring us from our selves to trust in him It is a wicked disposition in men that know not the wayes of God they are ignorant of the wayes that he takes with his children when they see men that are Christians that they are humbled and cast down and troubled they think they are men forsaken of God c. alas they do not know Gods manner of dealing he casts them down that he may raise them up they receive the sentence of death against themselves that he may comfort them after that he may do them good in their latter end Let this therefore keep us from censuring of other men in our thoughts for this hard course which God seems to take with them And let us make this Use of it when we are in any grievance and God followes us still let us mourn and lament the stubbornsse of our hearts that will not yeeld God intends to draw us near to him to trust in him if we would do this the affliction would cease except it be for tryall and for the exercise of Grace and for witnesse to the truth When God afflicts sometime for tryall and for witnesse there is a spirit of Glory in such a case that a man is never afflicted in mind but I say when God followes us with sicknesse with crosses with loss of friends and we are not wrought upon let us censure our hard hearts that force God to take this course And justice God in all this Lord thou knowest I could not be good without this thou knowest I would not be drawn without this bring me near to thy self that thou mayest take away this heavy hand from me The intemperate man that is sick makes the Physitian seeme cruel It is because I set my affections too much on earthly things that thou followest me with these troubles we force God to do this A Physitian is forced to bring his Patient even to skin and bone an intemperate Patienr sometimes that hath surfetted upon a long distemper he must bring him to Deaths doore even almost to death because his distemper is so setled upon him that he cannot otherwise cure him So it is with God the Physitian of our souls he must bring us wondrous low we are so prone so desperately addicted to present things to trust to them and to be proud of them and confident in them that God must deal as a sharp Physitian he must bring us so low or else we should never be recovered of our perfect health again and all is that we might trust in God Observe we from hence another point that God in all outward things that are ill intends the good of the soul. He takes liberty to take away health and liberty and friends to take away comforts but whatsoever he takes away he intends the good of the soul in the first place And all the ills that he inflicts upon us they are to cure a worse ill the ill of the soul to cure an unbelieving heart a worldly proud carnal heart which is too much addicted to earthly things We see here how God dealt with St Paul all was to build up his soul in trust and confidence in God all was for the soul. The reason is other things are vanishing the soul is the better part the eternal part if all be well with the soul all shall be well otherwise at last If it be well with the soul the body shall do well though God take liberty to humble us with sicknesse and with death it self yet God will riase the body and make it glorious a good soul will draw it after it at last and move God to make the body glorious But if the soul be naught let us cherish and do what we will with the body both will be naught at last This life is not a life to regard the body we are dead in that while we live the sentence of death is passed we must die we are dying every day The body is dead because of sin we are going to our grave every day takes away a part of our life This is not a life for this body of ours it is a respite to get assurance of an eternal estate in heaven God takes our wealth and liberty and strength c. That he may help our souls that he may work his own blessed work in our souls that he may lay a foundation of
eternall happinesse in our souls Therefore hence we should learn to resign our bodies and estates to God Lord do with me what thou wilt onely cure my soul onely strengthen my faith I give thee liberty with all my heart to take what thou wilt so thou save my soul give me not up to an unbelieving heart to an hypocritical false heart to false confidence to trust in false grounds and to perish eternally for my estate and body do what thou wilt VVe should be brought to this why because indeed the state of the soul is the true state either in good or ill if all be naught with that all will be naught at last we shall trie it to our cost And therefore let us even rather thank God and desire God to go on with his work Lord rather then thou shouldest give me up to a hard heart to a stubborn heart and perish and have no sound change rather then suffer me to perish thus use me as thou wilt And thank him when we find any degree of goodness or faith Lord thou mightest have followed me with outward blessings and so have given me up in my soul to hypocrisie and to pride that I should never have felt the power of grace that I should never have known thee or my self throughly or the vanity of outward things but this thou hast not done thou hast not given me liberty in outward things that thou mightest doe good to my soule blessed be thy Name Let us not onely take it well but thankfully at Gods hands To proceed That we might trust in God that raiseth the dead The soul must have somewhat to trust to The foundation must be laid for the soul is a creature and a dependant creature somewhat it must have to rely on as all weak dependant things have somewhat to depend on The Vine is a weak plant it must have the Elme or somewhat to rely on it will sink else it will become unfruitful and unprofitable All things that are weak are supported by somewhat that is stronger It is an inclination and instinct in things that are weak to look for supply from things that are stronger then themselves to support them and it is their happinesse to be so The creatures that are unreasonable are guided by those that have reason by men and the creatures that are reasonable are guided by Superiours by God and by Angels that are above them and have the care and charge over them It is the happinesse of weaker things to be under the supportation of that which is stronger And some support it will have good or bad The soul if it have not God it will have pleasures it will have profit The worst of men that think there is little for them in heaven by reason of their blasphemy and filthy courses they will have base pleasures to go to that they will trust to and carnall acquaintance to solace themselves withal The worst of men will have some dirty thing or other to give their souls to to support themselves withal something the soul will have God loves the soul and hath made it for himself and as he hath made it for himself to joyn with himself to solace himself in it My son give me thy heart so when he takes it from outward things he will not have it empty to rely upon nothing but he takes it to himself All this is to take our hearts from our selves and from felf-confidence that we may trust in him God is for the heart and that is for him as I said he calls for it My son give me thy heart give me thy affection of trust of joy of delight all the affections they are made for God and for heaven and heavenly things Our affections that we have they are not made for riches Our Souls are not made for them the soul is larger then they they will not content the soul. The soul is a spirituall substance and they are outward things the soul is large they are scanty in their extent they are uncertain and momentanie the soul is an eternal thing it out-lives those things and thereupon the soul is not made for them and they are not made for the soul. They are to give contentment to the outward man for a while here they are made for our pilgrimage to comfort us in the way to heaven but the soul is not for them The soul is the Chamber and the Bed and as it were the Cabinet for God himself and Christ to rest in onely All outward things must be kept out of the heart we may use them but we must keep them out of the heart it is not for them We must not joy in them and solace our selves and delight in them over-much further then we seek God in them and enjoy God in them but as they are sensible things the heart is not for them therefore God takes the heart from self-confidence and from other things he suffers it not to wander but he takes it to himself that we may trust in him The next thing then that we may observe is that when we go out of our selves we must have somewhat to rely on which is better then all things else we lose not by the change but when we are stripped of our selves and of all earthly things we have God to go to God is the object of trust God is the proper object of trust of the Christian soul he is the object of trust as well as the author of it he is the cause and worker of it by his Spirit and he is the object of it If we trust to other things it must be as they are Gods Instruments as they are Gods meanes but if we trust any thing either wealth or friends or any thing to neglect the worship of God or to please our selves in it to put our hands to ill courses in confidence of the creature in confidence of men or any thing else to take any false cause in hand this is to trust them above their respect We must trust to them as Instruments as voluntary Instruments which God may use when he pleaseth or not use when he pleaseth When we use them otherwise we forget their nature then we use them not as Instruments but as the chief we forget the order God is the object of trust we must rest on him for Grace and glory for the best things and for the things of this life as far as they are good So far as we trust to any thing else to move us to security to rest in them or to sin for them it is a sinful trust Other things we may trust but in the nature of vain Instruments changeable Instruments that God may alter and change he that is rich to day may be poore to morrow he that hath a friend to day may have him taken away to morrow and so all outward things they are changeable and mutable but we may trust God all times alike
of trust in God True trust lookes to Gods truth and promise and Word in one part of it as well as another Thou trusts God for thy salvation and the promises of that but thou must trust him for the direction of thy life too Faith doth not single out some objects I will believe this and not that faith is carried to all the objects it believes all Gods truths therefo if I believe not the threatnings and the directions to be ruled by them I believe not the promises in what measure thou believest the promise of mercy to save thy soul in that measure thou believest the directions of Gods Word to guide thy soul. He that receives Christ as a Priest to save him he must receive him as a King to rule him All the directions and all the threatnings and all the promises must be received and believed A man hath no more faith and trust in God then he hath care to follow Gods direction for faith is carried to all divine truthes all come from the same God Thousands go to hell and think O God is a mercifull God and I will trust in him but how is thy life is it carried by Gods directions thou art a rebel thou livest in sins against conscience thou wilt trust in God in one part of his Word and not in another thou must not be a chooser Again the last that I will name at this time if thou trust God for one thing undoubtedly thou wilt trust him for all if thou trust him with thy Soul certainly thou wilt trust him with thy Children Some men hope to be saved by Christ O he will be mercifull to their souls and yet even to their Death they use corrupt courses to get an estate and to make their Children rich and except they have so much they will not trust in God If they have nothing to leave them they think not that there is a God in heaven who is a better Father then they Put cafe thou hast nothing hast thou not Gods blessing canst thou trust thy soul with God and canst thou not trust him with thy family Is he not the God of thy seed hath he not made the promise to thy posterity as well as to thy self If thou trust him for one thing thou wilt trust him for all Wilt thou trust him for Heaven and wilt thou not trust him for provision for daily bread Wilt thou not trust him for this or that but thou must use unlawfull meanes He that trusts God he trusts him for all truths and for all things needfull with his Family with his Body with his Soul with all And so much for the tryalls whether we trust in God or no. Let us not deceive our selves it is a point of infinite consequence as much as the salvation of our souls What brings men to hell in the Church false confidence they trust to false things or they think they trust in God when indeed they do not The fault of a ship is seen in a tempest and the fault of a house is seen when winter comes Thy trust that is thy house that thou goest to and restest in the fault of that will be seen when thou comest to extremity in the hour of death then thou hast not a God to go to then thy conscience upbraids thee thou hast lived by thy shifts in carnall confidence and rebellion against God and how canst thou then willingly trust God whom thou hast made thine enemy all thy life-time To go then to some helps If upon search we find that we do not so trust in God as we should Let us lament our unbelieving hearts complain to God of it desire God whatsoever he doth that he would honour us so much as that we may honour him by trusting in him for it is his glory and our salvation But because I will not go out of the text the best way is that which followes to know God as he is How come we to trust a man When we know his Honesty his Fidelity his Wisdom and his sufficiencie then we trust him therefore St. Paul adds here that we should Trust in God that raiseth the dead that is in God Almighty From whence I raise this general that The best way to trust in God is to know him as he is We know his attributes by his principall works we know his nature by his works as here is one of the principall set down he is God that raiseth the dead A sound sanctified trust in God is by knowing of him They that know thy Name will trust in thee Psal 9. There are three waies of the knowledge of God His Nature Promises Works To know what he hath engaged himself in in all the promises that concern us and then to know his strength how able he is to make good them promises And then to know his works how his nature hath inabled him to make good those promises Especially his nature as to consider his goodnesse and his wisdom every attribute indeed doth inforce trust for he is good freely he is good to us of his own bowels VVe may trust him that hath made himself a Father out of hiw own mercy in Christ when we were enemies His goodnesse and wisdom is infinite as himself and his power and his truth As the scripture saith oft-times Faithful is God that hath promised St. Bernard a good man in Evill times saith he I consider three things in which I pitch my hope and trust Charitatem adoptionis the love of God in making me his Child and Veritatem promissionis the truth of God in performing his promise his Love is such to make me his Child his truth is such to perform his promise Thirdly I consider his power that is able to make good that that he hath promised This threefold cable is a strong one his love in adoption his truth in performing his promise and his power in making good all this This threefold cable will not easily be broken Let my Sottish flesh murmur against me as long as it will as the flesh will murmur who art thou that thou darest trust in God What is thy merit that thou hopest for such great glory No no saith he I know whom I have believed as Saint Paul saith I answer with great confidence against my Sottish murmuring flesh I know whom I have trusted He is able he is good he is true This that Holy man had to exercise his faith I name it because it is the temper of all believing souls that are so in truth The believing heart considers the nature of God the promise of God and though the murmuring rebellious flesh say what art thou how darest thou that art flesh and blood look to God O he is faithful he is good and gracious in Christ he hath made himself a Father I know whom I have believed God is al-sufficient Trust and confidence doth grow in the soul in what measure and proportion the knowledge of him
and perhaps I shall have better occasion to speak of it afterward I onely apply it to the present purpose how it strengthens faith in misery and in the houre of death A man is strengthened in his faith when he thinks now I am going the way of all flesh I am to yield my soul to God and death is to close up mine eyes yet I have trusted in God and do trust in God that will raise my body from the grave This comforts the soul against the horrour of the grave against that confusion and darknesse that is after death Faith seeth things to come as present it sees the body after it hath a long time been in the dust clothed with flesh and made like the glorious bodie of Christ faith sees this and so a Christian soule dies in faith and sowes the body as good seed in the ground in hope of a glorious resurrection And that comforts a Christian soule in the losse of children of wife of friends that have been dearest and nearest to me I trust in God that raiseth the dead that he will raise them again and then we shall all be for ever with the Lord it is a point of singular comfort for the maine Articles of our faith they have a wondrous working upon us in all the passages of our lives it is good to think often upon the pillars of our faith as this is one That God will raise us from the dead But I go on to the next verse VERS 10. Who delivered us from so great a death who doth deliver us in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us SAint Paul sets down his troubles to the life that he might make himself and others more sensible of his comforts and of Gods grace and goodness in his deliverance These words contain his deliverance out of that trouble his particular deliverance out of a particular trouble And this deliverance is set down by a triple distinction of time as time is either past present or to come so God who is the deliverer for all times he hath delivered us for the time past he doth deliver us for the present in whom we trust that he will deliver us for the time to come Who delivered us from so great a death After St. Paul had learned to rrust in God after he had taken forth that lesson a hard lesson to learn that must be learned by bringing a man to such extremity I say after he had learned to trust in God that raiseth the dead God gave him this reward of his diligence in the blessed school of afflictions he delivered him who hath delivered us and who doth deliver us continually he will not take his hand from the work and for the time to come I hope he will do so still St. Paul here calls his trouble a death It was not a death properly it is but his aggravation of the trouble that calls it a death because Gods mercy onely hindred it from being a death it was onely not a death it was some desperate trouble some desperate sicknesse the particular is not set down in the Scripture We know what a tumult there was about Diana of Ephesus Acts 19. and in 1. Cor. 15. He fought with beasts at Ephesus which is in Asia after the manner of men Whether it were that or some other we know not whatsoever it was he calls it a death he doth not call it an affliction but a death a great death to make himself the more sensible VVherefore have we souls and understandings but to exercise them in setting forth our dangers and the deliverances of God to consider of things to affect us deeply The Apostle here to affect himself deeply he sets it down here by a death And oft-times in the Psalmes the Psalmist in Psalme 18. and Psal. 11. he calls his afflictions death and hell and so they had been indeed except God had delivered him But to come to the points that are considerable hence First of all we may observe this that God till he have wrought his own work he doth not deliver he brings men to a low ebbe to a very low estate before he will deliver Secondly After God hath wrought his own work then he delivers hischildren Thirdly he continues the work still he doth deliver me Fourthly That upon experience of Gods former deliverance Gods children have founded a blessed argument for the time to come He hath he will deliver me God is alway like himself he is never at a loss what he hath done he doth and will doe reserving the limitations as we shall see afterward God doth not at the first deliver his children He delivered St. Paul but it was after he had brought him to receive the sentence of death and after he had learned not to trust in himself but in God that raiseth the dead God deferres his deliverance for many reasons To name a few God doth deferre his deliverance when we are in dangers partly as you see here to perfect the work of mortification of self-confidence to subdue trust in any earthly thing St. Paul by this learned not to trust in himself And then to strengthen our faith and confidence in God when we are drawn from all creatures to learn to trust in him And to sweeten his deliverance when it comes to indear his favours for then they are sweet indeed after God hath beat us out of our selves Summer and Spring are sweet after Winter so it is in this vicissitude and intercourse that God useth favour after affliction and crosses is favour indeed That makes heaven so sweet to Gods Children when they come there because they go to Heaven out of a great deal of miserie in this world And partly likewise God defers it for his own glory that it may be known for his meer work for when we are at a losse and the soul can reason thus God must help or none can help then God hath the glory therefore in love to his own glory he defers it so long Again he useth to defer long that he might the more shame the enemies at length for if the affliction be from the insolencie and pride of the enemies he deferres deliverance till they be come to the highest pitch and then he ariseth as a Gyant refreshed with wine and smites his enemies in the hinder parts he is as it were refreshed on the sudden And as it is his greatest glory to raise his children when they are at the lowest so it is his glory to confound the pride of the enemies when it is at the highest if he should do it before his glory would not shine so much in the confusion of them and their enterprises against his children One would think he should not have let Pharaoh alone so long but he got him glory the more at the last in confounding him in the Red-sea So Haman came very farre almost to the execution of the decree he
will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old I will meditate of all thy works and talk of thy doings c. See his infirmity when he was in trouble of mind his sins began to upbraid him that God had left him I said in my infirmity God hath forgotten me c. and hath God forgotten to be gracioue hath he shut up his tender mercies in displeasure then saith he this was my infirmity but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high c. And the same he hath in many other places as Psal. 143. 4 5. It argues the great weaknesse of our nature which is ready to distrust God upon every temptation of Satan as if God had never dealt graciously with us as if God were changeable like our selves Let us labour to support our selves in the time of temptation with the former experience of Gods gracious goodnesse and his blessed work upon our souls he that delivered us from the power of Satan keeps us from him stil that we sink not into despair he will keep us for the time to come so that Neither things present nor things to come as the Apostle saith shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. And let us as it were make diaries of Gods dealing to us this is to be acquainted with God as Job speakes this is to walk with God to observe his steps to us and ours to him it is a thing that will wondrously strengthen our faith especially in old years in gray hairs What a comfortable thing is it when an aged man can look back to the former part of his life and can reckon how God hath given him his life again and again how God hath comforted him in distresse how God hath raised him up in the middest of perplexity when he knew not which way to turn him how God comforted him when he was disconsolate all these meeting together in our last conflict when all comfort will be little enough what a comfort will it be And those that disfurnish themselves by their negligence and carelesnesse of such blessed helps what enemies are they to their own comfort Therefore consider Gods dealing remember it observe it think of it and desire Gods Spirit to help your minds and memories herein that nothing may be lost for I say all will be little enough the comfort of others our own experience the promises of Scripture Our Hearts are so readie to sink and to call in question Gods truth and Satan will ply us so in the time of temptation Especially those that are old and grow into years they should be rich in these experiments and able even to have a story of them we should be able to make a book of experiments from our Child-hood Gods care to every man in particular it is as if there were none but he and there is no man that is a Christian but he observes Gods wayes to him that he can say God cares for me as if he cared for none but me let us therefore treasure up experiments We see one notable example in David how he pleads with God Psalme 71. 3. from his former experience Be thou my habitation wherein I may continually rest thou hast given command to save me for thou art my rock and my fortresse Whatsoever is comfortable in the creature God hath taken the name of it to himself that in all troubles we might flie to him as the grand deliverer for it is he that delivers whatsoever the meanes be whether it be Angells or men it is he that sets all on work therefore he is called a rock and a fortresse c. Thou hast given command to save me that is God hath the command of all creatures he can command the fish to give up Jonas he can command the Divels to go out Christ did it when he was on earth in the daies of his flesh Therefore much more now he is in heaven he can command winds and storms and divells and all troubles He hath the command of all as he saith to Elias Behold I have commanded a widow to feed thee The hearts of Kings are in his hand as the rivers of waters he that commands the creatures can command deliverance Thou hast commanded to save me for the time past What doth he say for the time to come Deliver me oh God from the wicked thou art my hope and trust from my youth c. Cast me not off in mine old age when my strength faileth me for sake me not It is a good argument Thou hast been my God from my Mothers womb therefore cast me not off in my old age Well we see here the practice of Gods Children in all times Let it be a pattern for our imitation that we do not forsake our own mercy as Jonas saith When God hath provided mercy and provided promises to help us with experience let us not betray all through unbelief through base despair in the time of trouble If we had but onely Gods promise that he will be our God that he will forgive our sins were not that enough Is it not the promise of God of Jehovah that is truth it self but when he hath sweetned his promise by experience and every experience is a pledge and an earnest of a benefit to come what a good God have we that is content not onely to reserve the joyes of heaven for us but to give us a taste to give us the assurance and earnest of the time to come and besides his promise to give us comfortable experience and all to support our weak faith But remember withal that this belongs onely to Gods Children and in a good cause for wicked men to reason thus He hath and therefore he will it is a dangerous argument they must not trust former experience We must hope that God will continue as he hath been upon this ground that we are his Or else the ground of the ruine of wicked men is presumption that God will bear with them as he hath done The King of Sodom and his People were rescued out of trouble by Abraham and the army that he raised yet they were pittifully consumed not long after by fire from Heaven Pharaoh was delivered by Moses prayer God delivered him from ten plagues they made not a good use of it and they perished after miserably in the Red-sea Rabshakeh comes and tells of the former prosperitie of Sennacherib Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad c. Hath not my Lord overcome all I but it was immediately before his reign Herod he prospered and had good successe in the beheading of James and therefore he would set upon Peter he thought to trust to his former successe he was flushed in the execution of James he thought God hath given me successe and blessed me in this He thought God was of his mind as it is Psalm 50. Thou thinkest me to
communion in duties one to another one prayes for another there is a mutuall entercourse of duty and those that truly believe the communion of Saints do truly practise the duties belonging to that blessed society that is they one pray for another I meane here on earth here we have a command here we have a promise here we have mutuall necessities I have need of them and they have need of me we have need one of another In heaven there is no such necessity yet there may be as Divines grant a generall wish for the Church because the Saints want their bodies and because they want the accomplishment of the elect Where there is want of happinesse there will be a generall desire that God would accomplish these daies of sin but for any particular necessities of ours they cannot know them Abraham hath forgotten us and Israel knows us not There is a communion of Saints and this blessed communion and society trade this way in praying for one another God commands that we should pray one for another Every Christian is a Priest and a Prophet now the Priests duty was to pray and the Prophets duty was to pray Now as the Priest carried the tribes on his brest onely to signifie that he had them in his heart and that he was a type of Christ who hath us in his heart alway in heaven to make intercession for us so in some sense every true Christian is a Priest he must carrie the Church and people of God in his heart he must have a care of others he must not onely pray for himself but for others as he himself would have interest in the Common prayer Our Father as Christ teacheth us Not that a Christan may not say My Father when we have particular ground and occasion to go to God but Chrst being to direct the Church of God he teacheth us to say Our Father there is therefore a regard to be had by every true Christian of the estate of others The reason is Gods Children sometimes cannot so well pray though they have alway a spirit of prayer that they can groane to God yet in some cases they cannot so well pray for themselves as in sicknesse Affliction is a better time to pray in then sicknesse for affliction gathers and unites the spirits together it makes a man more strong to pray to God but sicknesse distempers the powers of the soul it distempers the instruments that the soul works by it distempers the animall spirits which the understanding useth they are inflamed and distempered and confused Now the spirits that are the instruments of the soul being troubled with sicknesse sicknesse is not so fit a time for a man to pray for himself though God hear the groanes of his Spirit as David saith My sighs are not hid from thee yet notwithstanding it is good at this time to send for those that can make a more distinct prayer though it may be they be great Christians therefore saith-Saint James James 5. 13 14. Is any man afflicted let him pray is any man sick let him send for the Elders of the Church and let them pray for him not that he is not able to pray for himself but let them help by joyning together with him to God And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up Nay I add more for the illustration of the point it is so true that God regards the prayers of one for another that he regards the prayer of weak ones for grand ones great Christians are helped by mean ones yea Pastors are helped by the people St. Paul a man eminent in grace and place a grand Christian and for place an Apostle yet he was helped by the prayers of the weak Corinthians so that a weak Christian in grace and place may help a greater Christian then himself both in grace and in place Parents are helped by the prayers of their Children Magistrates by those that are under them the rich are helped by those that are poore the Ministers by the prayers of the people You helping by your prayers The prayers of the people prevail for the Ministers for though there be a civill difference which shall all end in Death yet notwithstanding in the Communion of Saints there is no difference A poore man may be rich in faith as St James saith and one may have as much credit in the Court of heaven as another As St. Austin saith well God hath made the rich for the poor and the poor for the rich the rich to relieve the poor and the poor to pray for the rich for herein one is accepted for another St. Paul stands much upon the vertue and efficacy of the prayers of the Corinthians for himself a great Apostle And so in Rom. 15. I beseech you for the love of Christ and for the blessed work of the Spirit strive by Prayer together with us As ever you felt Christ do good to you and as ever you felt the efficacy of the Spirit strive with God wrastle by prayer for me and so in every Epistle he begs their prayers And Ministers need the prayers of people to God as well as any other or rather more for as God conveys much good to others by them so Satan malignes them more then other men Aime not at small nor great but at the King of Israel pick out him so the Devill aimes not at small nor great but at the Guides of Gods people at the Leaders of his armie I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered Therefore pray for them that they may have abilities that they may have parts and gifts and that they may have a willing mind a large heart to use them that they may have successe in using them that they may have strength of the outward man that they may have protection from unreasonable men Pray for us that we may be delivered from unreasonable and absurd men 2 Thessalonians 3. Absurd men for none but absurd men will wrong those that God conveys so much good by as he doth by the Ministery it is their lot to be vexed with such men oft-times and therefore pray for us What is the reason of this that mean Christians may help great Christians by their prayers God will have it thus great Christians have not the Spirit of prayer alike at all times though it be supposed they have it yet the more help there is the more hands are put to the work the sooner it is dispatched As in the removing of a burden the more joyn together the sooner it is remoed and so in the drawing of any thing the more hands the speedier dispatch So when we would draw blessings from heaven the more prayers there be that offer violence to God the more we draw from him If it be a judgment that hangs over our heads the more there be that labour to put away the judgment
things they set light by them Hosea 8. 12. He gave them the great things of his law and they accounted them as slight as strange things not worthy to be regarded Praise consists in taking notice and not onely in taking notice but in remembring and minding them as in Psal. 103. My soul praise the Lord and forget not all his benefits And likewise in an estimation of them and likewise in expressing this thankfulnesse in words Awake my glory our tongues are our glory especially as they are instruments to praise and glorifie God we cannot use our language better then to speak the language of Canaan in praising of God Likewise praise consists in doing good which is reall praise though we say nothing Moses cryed to God though he spake not a word Evill works have a crie although they say nothing Abels blood cried against Cain and as evill works so good works have a crie though a man praise not God with his tongue his works praise God Job saith The sides of the poore blessed him What could their sides speak No but there was a reall thanksgiving to God their sides blessed God so our good works may praise God as well as our tongues and hearts The heavens and the earth they praise God though they say nothing because they stir us up to say something Let men see your good workes that they may take occasion from thence to blesse God saith Christ. Or else your praising of God is but a meer complementing with God to give him thanks with the tongue and after to dishonour him with your lives Psal. 50. What hast thou to do to take my Name into thy mouth sith thou hatest to be reformed what hast thou to do to take my Name into thy mouth either in prayer or in praise when thou hatest to be reformed High words are unseemly for a foole saith the Wise man and what higher words then praise Therefore praise for a man that lives in a blasphemous course of life in a filthy course of life praise is too high a word for a fool we must praise God in our lives or else not at all God will not accept of it It consists in these things Now some directions how to perform it for our selves and others If we would praise God for our selves or for any then let us look about us let us looke above us and beneath us let us look backward look to the present look forward every thing puts songs of praise into our mouth Have we not matter enough of our own to praise God for let us look about us to the prosperity of others let us praise God for the Ministery praise God for the Magistracy praise God for the government wherein we live There are many grievances in the best government but a Christian heart considereth what good he hath by that government what good he hath by that ordinance and doth not onely delight to feed on the blemishes as flies do upon sores it is a sign of a naughty heart to do so Although a man should not be insensible of the ills of the times for else how should we pray against them yet he is not so sensible as to forget the good he hath by them If we would praise God let us look to the good and not so much upon the ill Look up to heaven look to the earth to the sea David occasions praise from every creature every creature ministers matter of praise from the stars to the dust from heaven to earth from the Cedar to the Hisop that growes by the wall Is there not a beam of Gods goodnesse in every creature have we not use of every creature we must praise God not only for the Majesty and order that shines in them but for the use of them in respect of us And so let us look to the works of Providence as well as to the works of Creation Look to Gods work in his Church his confounding of his enemies his deliverance of his Church the Churches abroad our owne Church our owne persons our friends thus we should feed our selves that we may have matter of praising God God gives us matter every day he renewes his favours upon the place wherein we live and upon us as itis Lam. 3. It is his mercy that we are not all consumed Let us look back to the favours that we have injoyed let us look for the present what doth he do for us The Apostle saith here God doth deliver us doth he not give deliverance and favour and grace inward grace for the time to come hath he not reserved an inheritance immortall and undefiled in the heavens for us Wherefore doth he bestow things present and wherefore doth he reveal things laid up for us for the time to come but that we should praise him but that we should praise him for that which he means to do afterwards Blessed be God the Father who hath begotten us to an inheritance immortall and undefiled c. saith St. Peter God reveals good things that are to come that we are heires apparent to the Crown of glory this is revealed that we might praise him now that we might begin the imployment of heaven upon earth Let us look upward and downward let us look about us look inward look backward look to the present look forward every thing ministreth matter of praise to God Yea our very crosses happie is he whom God vouchsafeth to be angry with that he doth not give him over to a Reprobate sense to fill up his sins but that he will correct him to pull him from ill courses happie is he that God vouchsafeth to be angry with in evill courses There is a blessing hid in ill in the Crosse. In all things give thanks saith the Apostle what in afflictions I not for the affliction it self but for the issue of it There is an effect in afflictions to draw us from the world to draw us to God to make us more heavenly-minded to make us see better into these earthly things to make us in love with heavenly things In all things give thanks When we want matter in our selves let us look abroad and give thanks to God for the prosperity of others And with all in the second place when we look about us let us dwell in the meditation of the usefulnesse of these things of the goodnesse of God in them till our Hearts be warmed It is not a slight God be thanked that will serve but we must dwell upon it let our hearts dwell so long on the favours and blessings of God till there be a blessed fire kindled in us The best bone-fire of all is to have our hearts kindled with love to God in the consideration of his mercy Let us dwell so long upon it till a flame be kindled in us A slight praise is neither acceptable to God nor man And then let us consider our own unworthinesse let us dwell upon
that I am lesse then the least of all thy favours saith good Jacob Gen. 32. If we be lesse then the least then we must be thankful for the least Humility is alway thankful a humble man thinks himself unworthy of any thing and therefore he is thankful for any thing A proud man praiseth himself above the common rate he over-values and over-prizeth himself and therefore he thinks he never hath enough when he hath a great deal he thinks he hath lesse then he deserves and therefore he is an unthankful person And that makes a proud man so intolerable to God he is alway an unthankful person a murmuring person A humble man because he undervalues himself he thinks he hath more then he deserves and he is thankfull for every thing he knowes he deserves nothing of himself it is the meere goodness of God whatsoever he hath The best direction to thansgiving is to have a humble and low heart rherefore David 1. Chron. 29. 14. when he would exercise his heart to thankfuluesse when the people had given liberally saith he Who am I or what is this people that we should be able to offer willingly after this sort all comes of thee and all is thine own that we give What am I or what is this people that we should have hearts to give liberally to the Temple see how he abaseth himself And Abraham I am dust and ashes shall I speak to my Lord And Job I abhor my self in dust and ashes when he considered Gods excellencie and his own basenesse A humble heart is alway thankful and the way to thankfulnesse is to consider our humilitie What am I saith David he had a heart to be thankfull of thine own I give thee not onely the matter to be thankfull for but of thine owne I give thee when I give thee thanks thou givest me a thankfull heart As the Sacrifice that Abraham offered was found by God so God must find the sacrifice that we offer even a thankfull heart of thine own Lord I give thee even when I give thee thanks Therefore you may make that a meanes to have a thankfull heart to pray for a thankfull heart And when we have it blesse God for it that we may be more thankfull God must vouchsafe the portion of a thankful heart with other blessings he that gives matter to be thankful must give a heart to be thankful Again to make us more thankfull do but consider the misery of our selves if we wanted the blessings we are thankfull for and the misery of others that have them not Thou that hast health if thou wouldest be thankfull for it look abroad look into hospitalls look on thy sick friends that cannot come abroad Thou that wouldest be thankfull for the libertie of the Gospell look beyond the seas look into the Palatinate and other Countries and certainly this will make thee thankfull if any thing will If we would be thankfull for spirituall blessings consider the miserie of those that are under the bondage of Satan how there is but a little step between them and hell that they are ready to sink into it there is but the short thread of this life to be cut and they are for ever miserable If we would be thankful for any blessing let us consider the misery to be without it If we would be thankful for our wits let us consider distracted persons What an excellent Engine to all things in this life and the life to come is this spark of reason If we want reason what can we do in civill things What can we do in matters of grace Grace presupposeth nature if we would be thankfull for health for strength and for reason if we would be thankful for common favours consider the miserie of those that want these things Would we be thankful for the blessed ordinance consider but the miserie of those that sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death how they are led by Satan and want the means of salvation Those that would be thankfull for the government we have let them consider those that live in Anarchie where every man lives as he lists where a man cannot enjoy his own The consideration of these things it should quicken us to thankfulnesse the consideration of our own misery if we should want them and the misery of those that do want them And let us keep a Catalogue of Gods blessings it will serve us as in regard of God to blesse him the more so in regard of our selves to establish our faith the more for God is Jehovah alway like himself whom he hath done good unto he will do good to he is constant in his love Whom he loves he loves to the end God shall have more thanks and we shall have more comfort Again to add some encouragements and motives to thankfulnesse which may be a forcible meanes to make us thankful do but consider it is Gods tribute it is Gods custom do but deny the King his custom and what will come of it deny him tribute and you forfeit all so you forfeit all for want of thankfulnesse What is the reason that God hath taken away the Gospel from countries abroad and may do from us if we be not more thankfull because they were not thankfull it is all the tribute all the impost he sets upon his blessings I will give you this but you shall glorifie me with thanksgiving It is all the honour he looks for He that praiseth me honoureth me And now O Israel what doth the Lord require of thee for all his favours but to serve him with a chearful and good heart to be thankful What is the reason that the earth denies her own to us that sometimes we have unseasonable years We deny God his own he stops the due of the creature because we stop his due When we are not thankful he is forced to make the heavens as Iron and the Earth as Brasse we force him to make the creature otherwise then it is because we deny him thankfulnesse The running of favours from heaven ceaseth when there is not a recourse back again of thankfulnesse to him For unthankfulnesse is a drying wind it dryes up the fountain of Gods favours it binds God it will not suffer him to be as good as his word If ever God give us up to publick judgments it will be because we are not thankfull to God for favours and deliverances as that in 88. by Sea and from the Gunpowder treason by land Was it not a sick State after Queen Mary when Queen Elisabeth received the Crown The Church and Common-wealth were sick Now if we be to praise God for our particular persons when we have recovered our health much more should we praise God when the State when the Church is delivered as it was at the comming in of Queen Elizabeth and afterward in 88. and of late time and continually he doth deliver us And if we
look that he should deliver us not onely our persons but the State wherein we live let us pray to God that he would do so and praise God for his former deliverance Again this is another motive the praising of God for formet deliverances it invites him to bestow new blessings Upon what ground doth the Husband-man bestow more seed upon that which hath yielded most in time past Will any man sowe in the barren wildernesse where it is lost No but where he looks to reap most and hath done formerly Where he sees a soil that is fruitfull he will sowe it the more and where the heart is a barren wildernesse that it yields nothing back again he takes that away that he gave before You know there is a debt in giving there must be a returning of thanksgiving alway and kindnesse requires kindnesse there is an obligation And where benefits are taken and men are thankfull that is the way to get more to be thankfull for that we have For God minds his own glory above all things and he will especially be bountifull to those from whom he sees he hath most glory therefore alway those that have been richest in grace and in comfort they were most in thankfulnesse as we see in David a man after Gods own heart and in diverse others Let this incourage us First if we be not thankfull it stops the current of benefits Secondly if we be thankfull God will give us more mercies and deliverances when we praise him in our hearts in our lives in our bounty to others in reall thankfulnesse when we are ready to good works then he is ready to bestow new still Again to stir us up to this duty of praising God for our selves and others Consider it is the beginning of heaven upon earth what a happinesse is it that when our persons cannot go to heaven till we die till our bodies be raised yet we can send our Ambassadors we can send our prayers and thanksgivings to heaven and God accepts them as if we came in our own persons Let your conversation be in heaven saith the Apostle How is that by praising God much I pray what is the imployment of heaven of the Angells and blessed Spirits They praise God continually for the work of Creation and for the work of Redemption that is their especiall task in heaven Our duty is to be much this way in praising God Self-love forceth prayer oft-times but to praise God comes from a more heavenly affection Again do but consider that no creature in the world is unthankful but divells onely and divellish men and good men onely so far as they are corrupt and hold correspondencie with their corruptions for every creature praiseth God in his kind set the divell aside who is full of envy and pride and malice against God therefore except we will be like the Divells let us be thankfull God hath made all creatures to praise him and to serve us that we may praise him and when they praise him shall we blaspheme him May not the swearer think with himself every creature blesseth God even the senselesse creatures and shall I dishonour God by my tongue which should be my glory to glorifie him shall I blaspheme him and be like to the divel shall I be more base then the senselesse creatures What glory hath God by many men that live in the Church that blaspheme God and their whole life is a witnesse against God as the whole life of a Christian after he is in the state of Grace is a witnesse for God and a praising of him his whole life is a thanksgiving so the whole life of wicked and carelesse creatures is a dishonour of God it is a witness against God There are none but divells divellish-minded men but they praise God even the very dumbe creatures Let us labour to have a part in that blessed musick and harmonie to praise God if we do not praise God here we shall never do it in heaven But we must remember by the way that this thankfulnesse it must be a fruitful thanksgiving As for us to pray to God to blesse us and then to do nothing it is a barren prayer so to thank God and then to do nothing it is a barren thanksgiving Our deeds have words our deeds have a voyce to God they speak they pray there is a kind of prayer a kind of thanks in our works Works pray to God they have a kind of crie to God both ill works and good works and if good works have a crie to God in prayer they will have a voice in thanksgiving this fruitful this real thanks is that which God stands upon And therefore it is alway joyned with a study how to improve the things that we thank God for to the best advantage If we thank God for health and recovery and deliverance we will labour to improve it to Gods glorie if we be thankful to God for riches for peace we will improve that to grow in grace to do good to others There is never a thankful heart but it studies to improve that which it is thankful for really that God may have the Glory and it the comfort and benefit by it or else it is but a lip-labour but a lost labour Let us shame our selves and condemne our selves for our unthankfulnesse and that will be done by comparing our carriage to men with our carriage to God If so be that a man do us a little courtesie how are we confounded if we have not returned some thanks and yet notwithstanding from God we have all that we have all that we are all that we hope to have and yet how many benefits do we devoure and do not re turn God thanks This disproportion will shame the best Christian that he is not so quick in his devotion to God to be thankful there as he is sensible of small kindnesses done by men this is a good way to make us more thankful And now when we come to the Sacrament let us blesse God The Eucharist is a thanksgiving where there are many there should be thanksgiving where there is a communion there is many and thanksgiving should be especially of many met together to thank God for Christ and for the good we have by him for if many joyned together in praise for St. Paul that was but a Minister that was but an instrument to set out the praise and the Doctrine of Christ much more should we be thankfull to God for Christ himself which is the gift of all gifts and for which he gives us all other gifts if he give us him can he deny us any thing If we be thankful for the health of our bodies as indeed we should if we be thankful for the peace of our humours much more should we be thankful for the peace of our consciences when our soules are set in tune when God and we are friends when the soul by
will tell them that it is another manner of sin and that it is the fountain of all sin And so for Justification by works conscience it self if there were no Book of God would say it is a false point And then they plead for Ignorance they have blind consciences their Clergy being a subtile generation that have abused the world a long time because they would sit in the conscience where God should sit they sit in the Temple of God and would be respected above that which is due to them they would be accounted as petty gods in the world therefore they keep the people from the knowledge of the true rule and make what they speak equal with Gods word Now if the people did discern this they would not be Papists long for no man would willingly be cozened Let us labour therefore for a true rule And when we have gotten rules apply them for what are rules without application Rules are instrumental things and instruments without use are nothing If a Carpenter have a rule and hang it up by him and work by conceit what is it good for So to get a company of rules by the word of God to refine natural knowledge as much as we can and then to make no use of it in our lives it is to no purpose therefore when we have rules let us apply them In this those that have the true rule and apply it not are better then they that refuse to have the rule because as hath been said an Ignorant man that hath not the rule he cannot be good But a man that hath the rule and yet squares not his life by it yet he can bring the rule to his life there is a near converse between the heart and the brain such a man he hath the rule in his memory he hath it in his understanding and therefore there is a thousand times more hope of him that cares to know that cares to hear the word of God and cares for the meanes then of sottish persons that care not to hear because they would not do that they know and because they would not have their sleepy dull and drowsie conscience awaked there is no hope of such a one It should be our care to have right rules and in the application of them to make much of conscience that it may apply aright in directing and then in comfort If we obey it in directing it will witnesse and excuse and upon witnesse and excuse there will come a sweet Paradise to the soul of joy and peace unspeakable and glorious The last thing I observe from these words is this that The testimonie and witnesse of conscience is a ground of comfort and joy The reason of the joyning these two the witnesse of a good conscience and joy it is that which I said before in the description of conscience for conscience first admonisheth and then witnesseth and then it excuseth or accuseth and then it judgeth and executeth Now the inward execution of conscience is joy if it be good for God hath so planted it in the heart and soul that where conscience doth accuse or excuse there is alway execution there is alway joy or fear the affections of joy or fear alway follow If a mans conscience excuse him that he hath done well then conscience comes to be enlarged to be a Paradise to the soul to be a Jubile a refreshing to speak peace and comfort to a man For rewards are not kept altogether for the life to come hell is begun in an ill conscience and heaven is begun in a good conscience an ill conscience is a hell upon earth a good conscience is a heaven upon earth therefore the testimony of a good conscience breeds glorying and rejoycing Again conscience when it witnesseth it comforts because when it witnesseth it witnesseth with God and where God is there is his Spirit and where the holy Spirit is there is joy for even as heat followes the fire so joy and glorying accompany the Spirit of God The Spirit of glory Now when conscience witnesseth aright it witnesseth with God and God is alway cloathed with joy he brings joy and glory into the heart Conscience witnesseth with God that I am his And it witnesseth with my self that I have led my life thus Our rejoycing is the witnesse of our conscience It is not the witnesse of another mans conscience but my own other men may witnesse and say I am thus and thus but all is to no purpose if my own conscience tell me I am another man then they take me to be But when a man 's own conscience witnesseth for him there followes rejoycing A man cannot rejoyce with the testimony of another mans conscience because another man saith I am a good man c. unlesse there be the testimony of my own conscience Now it is a sweet benefit an excusing conscience when it witnesseth well Let us see it in all the passages of life that a good conscience in excusing breeds glorying and joy It doth breed joy in Life in Death at the day of judgement In life in all the passages of life in all estates both good and ill In good the testimonie of conscience breeds joy for it enjoyes the pleasures of this life and the comforts of it with the favour of God conscience tells the man that he hath gotten the things well that he enjoyes that he hath gotten the place and advancement that he hath well that he enjoyes the comforts of this life with a good conscience and all things are pure to the pure If he have gotten them ill conscience upbraids him alway and therefore he cannot joy in the good estate he hath If a man had all the contentments in the world if he had not the testimonie of a good conscience what were all What contentment had Adam in Paradise after once by sin he had fallen from the peace of conscience none at all A little that the righteous hath is better then great riches of the ungodly because they have not peace of conscience And so for ill estate when conscience witnesseth well it breeds rejoycing In false imputations and slanders and disgraces as here it was insinuated into the Corinthians by false teachers and those that followed them that St. Paul was so and so saith St. Paul You may say what you will of me My rejoycing is this the testimony of my conscience that I am not the man which they make me to be in your hearts by their false reports The witnesse of conscience is a good and sufficient ground of rejoycing in this case Therefore holy men have retired to their conscience in all times as Saint Paul you see doth here So Job his conscience bare him out in all the false imputations of his comfortlesse friends that were miserable comforters they laboured to take away his sincerity from him the chief cause of his joy Yeu shall not
estate is not good because it is not such an estate So foolish and as a beast was I before thee saith David because I regarded such things No marvell if men be uncomfortable that are led away by scandals Look to faith goe to the Word to the Sanctuarie I went to the Sanctuary saith he and there I saw the end of these men So conscience must be suffered to have its work to be led by a true rule Again conscience sometimes concludes not comfort when there is ground of comfort from the remainders of corruptions and infirmities whereas we should be driven by our infirmities to Christ. And conscisence sometimes in good men doth not exercise its work in good men it is drawn away with vain delights even in the best men And conscience of its owne unworthinesse and of the greatnesse of the things it lookes for being joyned together it makes a man that he joyes not when he hath cause As for instance when the soule sees that God in Christ hath pardoned all my sins and hath vouchsafed his Spirit to me and will give me heaven in the world to come to such a wretch as I am here being a conflict between the conscience and sense of its own unworthinesse and the greatnesse of 〈◊〉 good promised the heart begins to stagger and to doubt for want of sound faith Indeed if we look on our own unworthinesse and the greatnesse of the good things promised we may wonder but alas God is infinite in goodnesse he transcends our unworthinesse and in the Gospell the glorie of Gods mercy it triumphs over our unworthinesse and over our sins whatsoever our sin and unworthinesse is his goodnesse in the Gospel triumphs over all In Innocency God should have advanced an innocent man but the Gospel is more glorious for he comes to sinners to condemned persons by nature and yet God triumphs over their sins and unworthinesse he regards not what we deserve but what may stand with the glory of his mercy therefore we should banish those thoughts and enjoy our own priviledge the promises of heaven and happinesse and all comforts whatsoever so much for the answer of that objection Now if we would joy in the witnesse of a good conscience we must especially in the time of temptation live by faith and not by feeling not by what we feele for the present but as we see Christ in his greatest horrour My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he goes to my God still We must live by faith and not by sense And then if we would rejoyce in extremities remember that God works by contraries God will bring us to heaven but it must be by hell God will bring us to comfort but it must be by sense of our own unworthinesse He will forgive our sins but it must be by sight and sense of our sins he will bring us to life but it must be by death he will bring us to glorie but it must be by shame God works by contraries therefore in contraries believe contraries When we are in a state that hath no comfort yet we may joy in it if we believe in Christ he works by contraries As in the Creation he made all out of nothing order out of confusion So in the work of the new creation in the new creature he doth so likewise therefore be not dismayed Remember this rule likewise that in the covenant of Grace God requires truth and not measure thou art not under the law but under the covenant of Grace A little fire is true fire as well as the whole element of fire A drop of water is water as well as the whole Ocean so if it be true faith true grief for sins true hatred of them true desire of the favour of God and to grow better truth is respected in the covenant of Grace and not any set measure What saith the Covenant of Grace He that believes and repents shall be saved not he that hath a strong faith or he that hath perfect repentance So Saint Paul saith as we shall see after This is our rejoycing that in simplicity and sincerity we have had our conversation among you he doth not say that our conversation hath been perfect So if we would have joy in the testimony of conscience we must not abridge our selves of joy because we have not a perfect measure of Grace but rejoyce that God hath wrought any measure of Grace in such unclean and polluted hearts as ours are for he least measure of Grace is a pledge of perfection in the world to come This is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience c. Hence we may gather clearly that A man may know his own estate in Grace I gather it from the place thus Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity c. Where there is joy and the ground of joy there is a knowledge of the estate but a Christian hath glorying and a ground of glorying in himself and he knowes it he hath that in him that witnesseth that estate he hath the witnesse of conscience therefore he may know and be assured of it If this testimony were not a true testimony it were something but all men naturally have a conscience and a Christian hath a sanctified conscience and where that is there is a true testimony and true joy from that testimony therefore he may be assured of his salvation and have true joy and comfort a Heaven upon Earth before he come to Heaven it self If conscience testifie of it self and from witnessing give cause of joy much more the Spirit of God comming into the conscience The Spirit beares witnesse with our spirits If our spirit and conscience bear witnesse to us of our conversation in simplicity and sincerity and from thence of our estate in grace much more by the witnesse of two By the witnesse of two or three every thing shall be confirmed but our spirits and conscience and the Spirit of God which every Child of God hath witnesseth that we are the Children of God Rom. 8. The Spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the sons of God Therefore a Christian may know his estate in Grace The spirit of a man knowes himself and the Spirit of God knowes him likewise and it knowes what is in the heart of God and when these two meet the Spirit of God that knowes the secrets of God and that knowes our secrets and our spirit that knowes our heart likewise what should hinder but that we may know our own estate It is the nature of conscience as I told you to reflect upon it self and upon the person in whom it is to know what is known by it and to judge and condemne and execute it self by inward fear and terrour in ill and in good by comfort and joy in a mans self It is the property that the soul hath above all creatures to return and recoyle upon it self If this be
the greatest judgement that God can shew in this world to give us up to our own wits to our own devices for we shall wind and turn and work our own ruine And that is the hell of Hell in hell when the soul there shall think with it self I brought my self hither God will be exceedingly justified when men by their own wit shall damne themselves When God hath revealed to man taught them this is the way O man I have shewed thee what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee he hath revealed it in his Word doe this and doe that and he hath given conscience to help and yet out of policie to contrive thy own pleasures and profits and advantages in the world thou hast done the contrary When a mans soul shall reason thus My owne wit brought me hither I am damned by wit I am damned by policie a poore policy it is that brings a man to damnation Therefore we should beg of God above all things that he would not deliver us up to our selves As Saint Austin hath a good speech Lord free me from my self from my own devices and policy The divell himself is not such an enemie as I said as our own carnal wit for it is that that betrayes us to Satan Satan could do us no harm unlesse he had a friend within us Therefore beg of God above all things Lord give me not up to my own brain to my own devices for man is a beast by his own knowledge but let thy wisdome and thy will be my rule Again if so be that we ought not to make this carnal fleshly wisdome the rule of our life then let us have a negative voyce ready presently for it whensoever we find any carnal suggestion in our hearts say nay to it presently deny it presently have a jealousie presently when any plot ariseth that is not warrantable by the Word of God and that is contrary to conscience and to simplicity and sincerity presently deny it consult not with flesh and blood as Saint Paul saith of himself Gal. 1. I consulted not with flesh and blood And when you have any thing to do Considering that this is not the rule you are to live by or when you have any thing to resist when you have any thing to suffer Consider what God requires consider what is for the peace of conscience consider what is for the good of your selves and for the good of the Church consult with these advisers with these intelligencers and not with flesh and blood Consider not what is for your profit for your pleasure for your ease but resolve against them Get the truth of God so planted in your hearts that it may carry you through all these impediments and all these suggestions whatsoever And because we cannot do this without a change we cannot have a disposition contrary to carnal wisdome without a change for except a man be born anew except he be a new creature he cannot have holy aimes you must labour therefore more and more to have the spirit of your mind renewed and to grow in assurance of a better estate for what makes men carnally to project for this world they are not sure of a better They reason thus with themselves It may be I may have heaven it may be not I am sure of the pleasures present of the profits present although alas it be but for a short time whereas if thy soul were enlightned with heavenly light and thou wert convinced of the excellent estate of Gods Children in this world in the state of grace That a Christian is incomparably above all men in the first-fruits of heaven in the peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost which is above all prosperity and all profit whatsoever And that in heaven which is above our capacity and reach every way they shall be happy if men were convinced of this certainly they would not prostitute their pates to work so worldly If they were sure of heaven they would not so plod for the earth Let us therefore labour to grow daily in the assurance of salvation beg of God his Spirit to have your minds enlightned And withal to joyn both together to see the vanity of all earthly things which set carnal wisdome on work For first outward things they work upon the sense upon the outward man profits and pleasures are outward things and therefore they work upon sense they work upon opinion in opinion they be so as indeed worldly things are more in opinion then in truth A carnal worldly man he thinks poverty a hell he thinks it is such a misery it is not so Labour to have a right judgmenr of the things of the earth that set carnal wisdome on work to avoid poverty to avoid suffering for a good cause The Devil inflames fancy fancy thinks it is a great hurt to be in poverty fancy thinks it is a great good to be in honour to be in credit to have great place that other men may be beholding to us Alas get a sanctified judgment to see what these things be that set our wits on work What are all these things Vanity and vexation of spirit Let our meditations walk between these two often think of the excellent estate of a Christian in this world and in the world to come and that will set heavenly wisdome on work it will make you plot and be politick for heaven And then withall see the vanity of all other things of pleasures and honours and profits and whatsoever that we may not prostitute our soules to them which are worse then our selves that our soules may not set themselves on work to project and proule for these things that are worse then themselves Let this be your daily practice the meditation of these two things is worthy to take up your cogitations every day To consider the vanity the vexation and uncertainty that accompanies all these things when you have got them as we see in Ahab when he had gotten the Vineyard Besides the vanity of thâ—… consider how you have gotten them and how miserable will you judge your selves presently How doth God meet with the carnal wits of men in the attaining of things The wicked man shall not roast that which he took in hunting He hunted after preferment he hunted after riches to scrape a great deal for his posterity how doth God deal with such he overthrowes them utterly and his posterity perhaps they spoyl all Himself roasted not that which he took in hunting Ahab got much by yielding to the carnal wisdome of Jezabel Hast thou gotten and also taken possession What became of Ahab with all his plots and devices Achitophel and others God may give them successe for a while but afterward he gives them the overthrow Herod he had successe a while in killing of James and therefore he thought to work wisely and get Peter too God struck him with Worms
fool The fool as the Wise man saith knowes not the way to the City so a wicked man he knowes not the way to heaven he discerns not the difference he provides not he knowes not the way thither he cannot do one thing that is gracious not one action that may further his account I might be very large in the point it is profitable because we do infinitely deceive our selves in that point which is of more consequence then the whole world for the man is as the rule that he is led by is carnall men are led by carnal rules gracious and holy men guide their lives by heavenly wisdome by a gracious rule Now if you find your selves defective for a good Christian may be defective in this but if he have hearkned to carnal wisdome if he have forgotten himself if he have troubled himself too much about the world he will come to his Centre again he will come to his old way again he will not be long out of it his way and course is by grace Sometimes he may have a policy that is not good as David had yet his way is gracious I say if you find your selves defective I will shew some helps how we may guide our selves not by fleshly wisdome but by the Grace of God that is by gracious wisdome by the Spirit Now the Spirit leads us not immediately but works Graces in us and stirres up those Graces in us The Spirit guides a godly man by working grace in him by making him better by using those graces in him Sometimes the Spirit of God moves a wicked man but it makes him not better he puts conceits into his head and makes him do that which otherwise he would not but he is not bettered The Spirit guides a good man by making him better he works a gracious disposition a gracious bent in him that his judgment concurres with Gods his affections concur with the holy Spirit and make him holy and pure There is a disposition wrought in a good man like to the Spirit that sanctifies him and like to the disposition of Christ to whose Image he is renewed Now that we may guide our lives by the Spirit working in us spirituall and gracious wisdome First of all consider what I said before of fleshly wisdome there are none but they have one of these two guides either the flesh and by consequent the divell for the divell dwells in our carnall reason that is his Fort that is his Tower his Castle Carnall fleshly Imagination is the Divells forge there he workes all his tooles all his Instruments For the Divell workes not so much immediately as by carnall men that are led with him Our wit and policie and carnall wisdome it is the shop the forge of the divell wherein he works all his mischief to overthow us It is the Divells Worke-house where he engins with all his tooles and Instruments Then considering that there are but two guides the flesh the world and Satan which alway go together in one or Gods Spirit and Grace let us be willing to submit our thoughts and desires to submit our projects and our aimes and all to the Spirit of Grace submit to the Word of grace and to the motions of the Word the Word of God having the Spirit of God accompanying of it the Word of grace accompanied by the Spirit of Grace is forcible as the Apostle saith 1. Cor 10. It beates down strong holds strong Imaginations Satan fortifies himself in strong holds as the Scripture calls them in high thoughts working discoursive thoughts Now when we come to hear the Word which teacheth the simple sincere truth of God that teacheth us how we should be saved and how we should guide our lives if we will be guided by grace if we will yield to Gods simple truth let him erect a throne in us let us lay down all When we come to hear the Word let us think I come to hear the wisdome of heaven it self I come to hear that Word that shall make me wise to salvation I will not entertain projects I will not entertain a wisdom that is contrary to it when they rise in my soule contrary to the direction of the Spirit and of the Word down they shall I will not owne them this is the wisdome of a man that intends to make grace his rule Now a carnal hearer a carnall reader a common Christian he brings his naughty proud heart he brings his high conceits to the hearing and reading of the Word he comes as a Censurer as a Judge he comes to talk of what was said in this passage and in that passage he comes not as to hear God speak in his Ordinance he comes not as a humble man he comes not to hear it as the Ordinance of God with reverence and that makes him come and go out again as a beast As the beasts that went our of Noah's Ark they went out as they came in so many come into the Church and go out again as beasts they go our worse then they came in because they bring not hearts to submit themselves to God and to his Word O a spirit of subjection it is a blessed thing Self-denyall is some help to this be content in the guiding of your common life and in the guiding your way to salvation to be no wiser then Gods Spirit and Gods Word will make you to have no will nor no wisdome contrary to his will and wisdome but you will live as men that have nothing of their own nothing different from God no distinct will no contrary will and wit to God but you will let God take the guidance of you himself and whom he guides must needs come to a happie end as the Psalmist saith excellent well Thâ—… wilt guide me by thy counsell and after bring me to glorie Those that submit themselves to be guided by Gods counsell he will bring them to glory Serviceable to this is that which is pressed every where in the Scripture Humility God gives Grace to the humble that is he gives them not onely forgivenesse of sins and acceptation to life but he gives them grace for the regiment of their lives he gives Grace to the humble Those that humble their wits to God for there is a humiliation of the wit as well as of the affections that they care not for the depths of Satan they care not for School-tricks they care to know nothing but Christ and him crucified as S. Paul saith Gods Word is of Power and Majestie enough to save me I need not bring my wit for my acceptance to God it is truth that is accepted not a strong brain to cavil God gives Grace to the humble Those that bring their understandings to be led and taught by God he gives grace to them Again in the third place If we would have our thoughts guided by counsel let us have a high esteem of wisdome above all precious
rejoycing They were St. Saul's rejoycing as they were gained to God and to Christ by his Ministery when he looked on them he looked on them as people given him by God As God said to him of them in the ship when they suffered shipwrack I have given thee all their lives It was a great honour to Saint Paul that God should give him the lives of all that were in the ship but more honour that God gave him so many souls Thou shalt have the honour of saving so many souls Therefore they were his rejoycing in the day of the Lord especially but now they were his rejoycing because by faith he apprehended that they should be his special rejoycing when he and they should stand together before the Judgement-seat of Christ. For faith makes things to come present Ye are our rejoycing because you shall be our rejoycing then more especially This is the nature of faith to present things absent For Blessed St. Paul now in heaven when at the day of judgement he shall stand before Christ withall the rank about him of Corinthians Ephesians Philippians c. and all the Churches he converted when he shall be environed with them as so many brought in triumph under the Kingdome of Christ and pulled from the bondage of Satan as what a world of people did he bring to God what triumph did he make over Satan and the corruption of men bringing men into captivity to Christ When all these shall be set before him what a glory will this be for holy St. Paul when he shall look on all these blessed people as conquered and brought under Christs government by him And so for all the Apostles St. Peter and the rest And so for every Minister when he shall say Here I am and the soules that thou hast given me thou hast honoured me so much as to be an instrument to gain them to Christ to bring them to Heaven a special glorie The point of Doctrine or truth I observe hence is this That The Peoples proficiencie in Grace is the Ministers joy The peoples good estate in Grace is the Ministers joy and will be especially after at the day of judgment ye are our rejoycing As he saith Philip. 4. Ye are our crown and our glory And so 2 Thess. 2. What is our crown and rejoycing is it not you In every Epistle almost those good and gracious people he makes them his hope and joy and crown and rejoycing In what sense Because they were the objective matter of his joy when he looked on them he looked on such as yielded him comfort he could not present them to his thoughts but he thought of them as matter of joy here be the people that God hath honoured me to do much good unto He could not think of them but as the object of his rejoycing the word is Canchema our rejoycing that God had given them to him to bring to heaven Love descends we know and the workman looks upon his work with a kind of complacencie Saint Paul could not look upon those that he was used as a blessed Instrument to doc good upon without a speciall kind of delight They were the object matter of his joy Then again they were not onely the matter of his joy and rejoycing presenting to his soule comfortable considerations but also they were some meanes to increase his joy in Heaven for Those that convert soules shall shine as the starres in the Firmament Dan. 12. Those that are honoured of God so farre as to bring souls to God they shall shine as the stars in the Firmament especially those that convert souls shall have a degree of honour above others though the substantial glory be by Christ. It is not to be denyed that the accidental increased glory comes by the increase of the fruit of the Ministery and so Christians those that are fruitfull Christians that do much good they shall have much glory Saint Paul shall have more rejoycing then others that did not so much good as he Ye are our rejoycing because you shall be a means of my greater rejoycing they were the object of his joy and the means of his joy Then in the third place they were his rejoycing because they were the seal of his Ministery that he was a sound Minister How was it known whether Saint Paul were a good Minister or no Behold his works see how he wrought on such and such people how many he gained to God When he looked on them he looked on them as a seal of his Ministery that he was a good Minister and in that regard they were his rejoycing And in some regard likewise in the fourth place that their gaining was an evidence to his soul that he was a good man Ordinarily though God convert men by ill men as Judas no question might convert some yet for the most part God honours his servants and he that is heat himself can kindle another Those that are not heat with grace they cannot speak of the efficacy and power of the things they feel not in their own hearts as others do therefore no question but it comforted him in the state of Christianity that God honoured him to be a means to bring others in to Christ. So in many respects the peoples goodnesse is the Ministers joy If this be so Let those that are under the Ministery not deny themselves that comfort or the Ministers that joy to be good There are many poysonful spightful spirits that are in love with damnation that will cherish the corruptions of their naughty nature in spight of God and all Rather then they will acknowledge to be wrought on by such and such to be their children they will be as they are they will be broken in a thousand pieces before they will bend to any Minister upon such weak resolutions to yield to a poor Ordinance of man here is the devillish pride and poyson of mans corrupt nature Can we set light by that but that at the same time we must set light by our own comfort and salvation How were the Corinthians Saint Paul's joy were they not their own joy first they were matter of joy to S. Paul because he saw he had gained them to Christ the good was especially theirs it reflected on him onely by consideration When he looked on them he was comforted but they were more comforted a great deal they had more comfort in his rejoycing then he his was but by reflexion of their goodnesse a comfort that came by consideration they had the main comfort of their goodnesse It is little comfort for any to carry themselves so as that those that are over them in Christ Jesus when they think of them can but sigh when they hear their blasphemies when they cannot so much as gain of them to leave courses that the very light of nature condemnes the filthy discoveries of a rotten heart their vile words and their offensive carriage
can this be a grief to the Minister and not for the damnation of their soules together And they shall find it a heavy and bitter thing to grieve the Spirit of God in others as well as they wound their own conscience both are joyned together What a happinesse is this that the more a man is interessed in the good of another man the more glory if he be a meanes of any good in him he shall have good and you shall have glory The best things in nature are communicative and diffusive the Sun gives light to the whole world so the best man is most fruitful and communicative he labours to gain all men by his acquaintance He knowes this that he is not for himself he is reedeemed for the honour of Christ And then he knows that anothers good will be my glory it will increase my glory and be the object of my glory On the contrary we see a company of wretched despicable creatures let their outward estate be as glorious as it will but I speak of them as Christian eyes judge and esteem of them that draw others on to the same course with them if they be blasphemers themselves they glory to make others so if they be given to sensuality they labour to make others sottish as themselves if they be given to filthinesse they draw others to communion with themselves Well will these people be much for their rejoycing in the day of the Lord think you what will they do when they think of others such as they have neglected altogether that God gave them charge of The very thought of them instead of making them rejoyce it will make them astonished I betrayed his soul he was my friend or my servant I let him live in such sins Good neglected will torment us hereafter But then ill infused by example and by word I poysoned him suppose I have repented my self but perhaps the person that I have drawn to communion in my sin hath not repented what a torment will this consideration be Good neglected will be matter of torment much more evil infused poyson infused When we shall see at the day of Judgment instead of a company that we have gained to God and been a meanes to further their salvation we shall see a company that we have infected with our ill example and our evil perswasions this will be in hell an increase of torment One will curse another and say You brought me hither The father will curse the sonne To get riches for you I crackt my conscience and lost my soul And the sonne shall curse the father By your riches that you lost me I lived a base and sensual life whereas perhaps I might have trusted to my good endeavours otherwise so here shall be cursing The friend shall curse his friend You might have told me of this you strengthened me in evil courses As it will be our glory when we shall see such and such as God hath used as instruments to do good unto so it will be a torment indeed to think Such and such I neglected and betrayed such and such I corrupted I beseech you therefore take heed of it And would you have matter of joy in this world that should joy you when nothing else will joy you as Saine Paul was in affliction oft what comforted Saint Paul First his own conscience that he was a good Christian an heir of heaven a good Apostle but when he wanted joy what would he do when he had no liberty but was imprisoned when he had nothing then he considered How hath Christ dignified me to do good to others this honouring of him to do this it comforted him more then all his imprisonment and abasement and reproaches could discourage him the conceit that God did use him as an honourable instrument for his honour and service to do good to others So the testimony of our Conscience that God hath used us to do good to others not onely to make me to gain heaven but to be an instrument to gain others this will comfort us in the world come what will This should stirre up those that have to deal with the soules of others not only Ministers but all others that have any committed to them that they should labour to make them good to work upon them for the good of their soules that they may have them as matter and objects of their joy at that day If they do not as I said when they are presented to them as persons whom they have neglected and betrayed negligently for want of instruction and reformation of their lives and as persons whom they have infected with their ill example which is worse alas what matter of horrour will they be They will not say of them as S. Paul saith here You are my joy and my crown and my glory but they will be matter of horrour these be they that I havs betrayed and neglected and infected and brought to hell to this cursed condition with my self It will be an increase of the torments of hell at that day all those whom we have hurt any kind of way But what shall it be then of those that have opposed goodnesse that have not only betrayed others by neglect but have maligned good where they have seen it what will become of them that are so far from making others good that they have despighted the Image of God in others and have exercised their bitternesse upon Christ in his members and Ministers To adde one thing more What! these Corinthians that had so many abuses and such weaknesses were they the matter of S. Paul's joy Yes why therefore people must take heed how they leave Churches that have corruptions in them Schisme oft-times is a greater fault then the fault upon which they pretend separation the things for which they pretend a rent are not so great a fault in the Church as the want of Charity in them to do so If Saint Paul would have taken occasion to leave them what good occasion had he alas how many corruptions had they in doctrine and in manners too but yet notwithstanding as ill as they were he saw what good was in them and looked not to the evil he knew that God would perfect the good things that were in them and saith he notwithstanding all their infirmities I see you were ready to reform when I wrote an Epistle to you therefore I doubt not but you will be our rejoycing In the day of the Lord Jesus This is the time it must be taken inclusively I am your rejoycing and you are mine to the day of the Lord Jesus and in the day of the Lord so he means here It is laid as a ground here That Jesus Christ hath a Day It is his day by way of eminency and excellency Jesus Christ hath many dayes two especially The day of his first coming and the day of his second coming The first coming of Christ was the
Christ. The best things are behind our chief rejoycing is behind our rejoycing now is our hope that we shall rejoyce then The Corinthians were S. Paul's joy now because he knew they should be his main rejoycing then If we rejoyce in any thing now let it be that our names are written in heaven in the testimony of our conscience that we are Gods that our hearts are wrought on that we have something that Christ will acknowledge when he sees his stamp and Image on us when he shall look on us and see his own Image upon our hearts there will be matter of joy in that day There will be joy in our selves and joy in all the blessed instruments that are under Christ the Ministers they shall rejoyce likewise in us and all of us shall joyn in joying in Christ all shall meet there For their joying in S. Paul and he in them it was that Christ was theirs And Christ shall come as it is in 2 Thess. 4. to be glorified in his Saints not onely in himself but in his believing members for his glory shall reflect upon them as the Sun reflects upon light bodies all light bodies are made light by the Sun So the Sun of Righteousnesse shall come and all them that have glory it shall be by reflexion from him they shall be glorious in him so he is both the Ministers joy and the peoples they shall all glory in Christ whose glory is their glory He shall come to be glorious in his Saints therefore frame your courses that way to have glory then to have comfort in the hour of death and at the day of Judgment And to end the point Let us labour to be acquainted with him now before that day we shall never have comfort in the day of the Lord Jesus except we be acquainted with him and acknowledge him in the Ministery now and in the Sacraments for none shall ever be acquainted with him there that have not been acquainted with him and known him in this world How do we come to be acquainted with Christ To be present where he is present and he is present where two or three are met together in his Name He is present now in our meetings he is present when we hear the Word He is present in the Sacrament more especially we have his very body and blood As verily as we take the outward signs so verily Christ is present to our hearts at the same time from heaven he reacheth us himself with all the benefits of his passion when the Minister reacheth the bread he reacheth his body As our outward man is refreshed with the elements so our soules are refreshed with the spiritual presence of Christ. Now he is excellently present in heaven he is present to our senses in the Sacrament and by his Spirit in the Word Would you have him then at his appearing come and own you and say then Come ye blessed be acquainted with him now upon all occasions hear the Word receive the Sacrament and come to the Sacrament as acknowledging him there How is that Why then you acknowledge the bread and wine to be Seales of him and of all the blessings by him when you come prepared when you come to them as his or else you do not acknowledge them you know them to be such and such things but you acknowledge them not to be set apart for such a holy use except you come with prepared hearts Will any body acknowledge him to go to a great person when he goes deformed and in rags do you know whither you go would some say to him He considers not whither he goes that comes to the Sacrament in his old sins Come acquainted therefore with Christ to acknowledge him that shall be your Judge at the latter day therefore come prepared And then because the Sacrament is a means to seal to us all the benefits we have by Christ and to incorporate us more nearly into Christ he that comes to the Sacrament as he should must come with joy Is it not a joyful thing to be united to Christ and to have further assurance of all the good things by him Yes it is a matter of great joy Therefore when you have repented of your sins come with joy And come with holinesse The things are holy as our Liturgy hath it let us give holy things to holy persons here is presented holy bread and wine and here you are to deal with Christ therefore come with holy reverence in the whole carriage of the businesse And come with faith and assurance and then you shall acknowledge Christ in this Ordinance in the Sacrament You shall acknowledge that he deales not complementally with you to feed you with empty signes but you shall have himself with his signs you shall have the Lord himself in the Word and in the Sacraments With the field you shall have the treasure in the field as the wise Merchant had With the Word you shall have Christ wrapped in the Word and in the Sacrament you shall have Christ and all his benefits Trust to it make it your weapon against Satan he will tempt you to doubt of your interest in Christ. Think with your selves Had I grace to receive Christ to be incorporate nearer into him why should I doubt to renew my Covenant And though I have fallen by weaknesse yet I have a gracious Intercessour in heaven that makes my peace continually Come in faith Know that God in good earnest here offers Christ with all his benefits And come with a purpose and resolution to be led by him You come to renew your Covenant here is the Covenant when Christ is given to you and you give your selves to Christ. Therefore as I said if you come with a purpose to live in sin come not at all Christ will not live in a heart where there is a purpose to sin therefore esolve to leave all sin or else you cannot receive him To move you to come and to come thus do but consider that it will be your joy in this world and in the world to come before Christ that you have been thus acquainted with him herc on earth acquainted with him in the Ministery acquainted with him in the Sacrament in private prayer and meditation in all the blessed means that he hath appointed and then he will look on you as upon his old friends But now he that is a Rebel that goes away or else comes not acknowledging with whom he hath to deal him that shall be his Judge ere long the Great God of Heaven and Earth that shall come in glory and majestie with thousands of his Angels Then he shall be Wonderfull indeed as his Name is Isai. 9. 6. and as the Apostle saith 2 Thess. 2. where he useth the word he shall be wonderful in his Saints Then all the world shall wonder at the glory of a poor Christian when he shall put down the Sun and all the
to their Childrens good I come to bestow a grace on you How this is observed I list not to speak therefore I leave it and come to that which concerns us all I was minded to come to you To bestow a grace on you We see then That The Preaching of the Gospel is a special Grace It is a free and bountiful benefit of God Gracce implies freedome and mercy and bounty It is a free mercy of God to have the Gospel Why Because this is the means to work all that is savingly good in us This is a means to open to us Gods love in Christ and to work in us a disposition answerable to his love therefore it must needs be a grace Heaven is a grace life is a grace reconciliation a grace and such like therefore the Word must needs be a grace by which all these are communicated Therefore the Word hath the name of these things It is the Word of the Kingdome of heaven It is called the Kingdome of heaven the preaching of the Gospel because it puts us into the state of the Kingdome of heaven and the Word of reconciliation because by it we know our reconciliation with God it is offered and wrought in our hearts and faith to apply it by this Word It is the Word of life Act. 20. the life of grace and the life of glory all come by this Word I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace saith the Apostle All grace and spiritual life is wrought in us by the Word therefore the Word preached it is a special grace and favour of God Saint Paul here calls his coming to them to strengthen and confirm them a grace For all means come under the same decree of Gods eternal love with the decree it self When God out of grace resolves and sets down that he will bring such a one to heaven of his free love he doth out of the same grace fit him with opportunities of persons and means he accommodates him with all means for he intends in such a way to bring him to heaven And therefore S. Austin doth well define Predestination it is an ordaining to salvation and a preparing of all means tending thereto Therefore all fall in the compasse of grace both the free favour of God setting a man down to make him happy and likewise by sending men that have an outward calling and inwardly furnishing them with gifts and whatsoever all is of Grace The preaching of the Word is a grace It concerns us therefore so to esteem it Do not many sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death Is it not a grace therefore that we partake of the means of salvation What is in us by nature better then in Turks and Pagans or then many other people under Satan and under Popish Teachers and so rot away in their Ignorance nothing we differ onely by the grace of God therefore let us esteem it as a grace How shall we esteem it as a grace Receive it thankfully as a largesse and bounty and free grace of God receive it as a bounty with thankful hearts Grace begets grace it begets thankfulnesse so to receive it as a grace is to receive it with thankful minds to be more thankfull for the means of salvation then for any outward thing How shall we come to be thankful Never unlesse we find some grace wrought by the Word of Grace Therefore to receive it as a grace is to receive it as a free loving gift of God and to yield to it when by it holy motions are stirred in our hearts not to suppresse and quench holy motions but to yield to them Not to quench and resist the Spirit but to yield our selves pliable to the Word This is to acknowledge it a grace to be thankfull for it because you find your hearts wrought to holy obedience by it Give it way in your soules that it may be an ingraffed Word that all the inward and outward man may be seasoned with it and relish of it that the Word may season your thoughts and speeches and desires and season your course of life that what you think may be in the relish and strength of the Word in the strength of some Divine truth and the guide of your actions may be Divine truth or some motives from it Then you will give thanks for what is wrought on you when it is an ingraffed Word in your soules and all relish of it your speeches and actions and your whole course when a man may know by your carriage that there is something invested and ingraffed in your soules that gives a blessed relish to all the expressions of the outward man Such a one indeed will account the Word a special grace by a sweet experience wrought in his heart I will not presse that Point any further Again whereas S. Paul saith he would come to bestow a second grace on them we see here That Those that are in the state of Grace already they need a second grace Those that have initial grace to be set in a good course they need confirming and strengthening Grace S. Paul had planted them before I but he must come to water them there is alway somewhat left for the Minister to do till he see their soules safe in heaven he hath alway somewhat to do to the Christian soules under him For he must not onely get them out of Satans Kingdome into a good estate but he must labour to build them up he must water them and fence them and strengthen them against all discouragements A man is never safe till he be in heaven therefore he saith I will come to you but I will come to bestow a second Grace on you you have need of it and my love is such to you that you shall have it To enforce this a little because we set termes to our growth and go on plodding in a course and many years after we are no better then we were at the first and some out of a prophane fulnesse out of a Laodicean temper they think they have enough they are rich when indeed they are empty and miserable and wretched and poor and if temptations set upon them they have nothing in them To let you see that we stand in need of a second grace and of a third grace and a fourth grace that we need continual building up First look within what opposition there is to saving goodnesse within what rebellion of lusts what Ignorance and blindnesse and darknesse and indisposition what head the flesh makes in us against the Word of God Let a man a little continue out of the means and he shall see what growth of corruptions there will be a distasting of all means that a man shall be ready to begin anew with them almost having a double principle in them of grace and corruption there needs continually strengthening and stablishing Grace Consider outwardly what discouragements from the ill
assistance this is the disposition of a modest Christian. You see in Psal. 2. how the Psalmist there insults over those that threaten to do this and that Why do the Heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing c. against the Lord and against his anointed As if they would swallow up the Church and Christ the anointed why do they do this and that God that sits in heaven he laughes them to scorn You see the grounds of lightnesse so far forth as is needful I will name no more The way to prevent it may be in observing these grounds of constancy Especially this Stablish your thoughts with counsel for the time to come consult go not rashly and headlong about matters It is not with our common life as with those that run in a race for their swiftnesse gets all but in matters of government in Common-Wealth there the most staid get all those that weigh things and then execute upon mature deliberation that ripen things first and go not rawly and indeliberately about it this every man takes for granted but it is not thought on Then again labour to suppresse passion in any thing that comes from us speak nothing in passion for one of these things will follow If we execute it we are in danger for the things in passion and inconsiderately spoken if not we shall have the shame of being frustrate we undergo the shame of lightness that we speak that in our passion and heat that we retract after One of these inconveniencies will follow either you will do it and then it will be dangerous or you will not do it and then you will be ashamed a fit reward of rashnesse God gives us passions to be guided and ruled and not to rule us they are good servants and onely servants that should be raised up and stirred up onely when reason and judgment raiseth them and not otherwise But to go on Another cure of this rashnesse is holy dependance on God by prayer and by faith to commit our wayes to him our thoughts to him for the time to come leave all to him entertain nothing wherein we cannot expect his gracious assistance the best Christian is the most dependant Christian. That is the first thing the Apostle declines What is the second thing Or the things that I purpose do I purpose according to the flesh They thought he was a Politician as this is the lot of Gods Children sometimes if so be that God hath given them parts either of nature or breeding carnal devillish men that are led altogether by plots themselves esteem them by themselves The things that I purpose do I purpose according to the flesh He propounds this interrogatory to their conscience not idly but he knew that they had a prejudice in them by his corrivals false Apostles therefore he labours to wipe away that imputation likewise that he did not purpose and consult of things according to the flesh What is flesh here Flesh is the unregenerate part of man whereof fleshly wisdome is the chief for that guides the old man that is the eye of old Adam Carnall wisdome it is the fleshes counsellour in all things therefore especially he means that But why is it called flesh For many reasons among many this is one that the soul so far as it is sinful it is led with things that are fleshly that are outward and thereupon a man is called flesh and the soul it self is called flesh because it cleaves in its affections and desires to earthly things And because the poor understanding now which ruled all and should rule all is become an underling to the carnal will and carnal lusts Therefore it self is called flesh likewise The wisdome of the flesh is enmity with God For now it is swayed even which way carnal fancy and opinion and the flesh lead it The reason is it is betwixt God and heavenly things and betwixt earthly things And if it were in its right original as it came out of Gods hands being a Spirit it should be led by God and by Gods Spirit and Gods Truth by better things then it self as every infirm thing is guided by that which is better then it self as brute creatures are guided by men and weaker persons by Magistrates that are or should be better but now since the fall without Grace renew a man the understanding part of mans soul instead of lighting its candle from heaven it often lights it from hell and is ruled by Satan himself and takes advice even from things meaner then it self and plots and projects altogether for things worse then it self It was not given for that end God knows that give it this soul of ours to proul for earthly things for the ease and honour and profits and pleasures of the world That excellent Jewel that all the world is not worth it was not given for that end no it was given to attain a higher end then this world to attain communion with God but now since the fall it is thus with it that it is a slave Carnal wit is a slave to carnal will and that carnal will is drawn by carnal affections affections draw the will and the will drawes the wit and makes it plot and devise for that which it stands for for carnall lusts and affections which whet the wit that way therefore the whole soul is called flesh even reason it self And hereupon wicked men are called the world why the world because they are led with the things of the world with the guise and fashion of the world A man in the language of the Scripture is termed by that which he cleaves to therefore if the heart and soul cleave to the flesh and the things of the flesh it is flesh if it be led with the world and the things of the world it is called the world Wicked men are the world because the best thing in them is the love of worldly things and their wit is for worldly things all the inward parts of their soul are spent upon worldly things therefore they are called flesh and the world And sometimes Satan himself a man as far as he is carnal is called Satan yea good men Go after me Satan saith Christ to Peter A man as far as he yields to any thing he is named from that which he yields to when fleshly things rule a man he is called flesh when worldly things rule him profits and pleasures a man is the world when a man yields to Satan he is Satan This should make us take heed by whom we are led under whose government we come Saith S. Paul Do I purpose according to the flesh that is according to the profits and pleasures and honours which the flesh looks after are those my advisers my intelligencers my counsellours in the things I take in hand what may make for my honour my pleasure my estate my worldly ease here No saith he I
purpose not according to the flesh The rule from hence is this That A Christian man ought by all meanes to avoid the imputation of carnall policy Every Christian much more a Christian man in Authority and place a Minister or Magistrate ought by all meanes to avoid it Saint Paul here declines it Did I purpose things according to the flesh was I politick I had just occasion to speak largely of it in the former Verse concerning fleshly wisdome therefore I will speak the lesse of it now We ought by all means to decline the imputation of it and much more the conscience of it then the report of it to be holily wise and to be accounted so too The reason is It is Gods enemy and our enemy should a Christian consult and deliberate with his enemy to take his enemy to be his Judge and his friend and counsellour A man that hath his enemy to guide him to a place that hath a Pirate to guide him in a Ship how can he come to good He that is led by the flesh he consults with his enemy when he looks what is for his profit or his pleasure c. These things we should renounce as we promised in Baptisme when we gave our names to Christ. If we live and deliberate according to the flesh we shall dye saith the Apostle peremptorily It is a dangerous enemy death is the issue of all the counsell of the flesh Rom. 8. Again it is a secret enemy a domestick enemy it is in all the powers of the soul we cannot be too jealous against it It is a perpetual enemy that accompanies us continually in all our consultations in all places in prosperity in adversity it hinders us from all good it keeps us from the reformation of any thing that is ill If a Magistrate be suggested by any other or by a good motion of his own Do this reform this Oh I shall run my self into danger I shall incur censure so ill is done and is unreformed onely by consulting with the flesh and good is neglected I shall be accounted an hypocrite if I do this So there is flesh and blood to hinder in every good thing the flesh will be foysting bad ends or bad moving causes and the flesh will be ready to keep us from reforming ill from fear of danger And if we do ill and be in ill it will be ready to keep us in ill Oh it is time enough to repent c. a thousand such policies the flesh hath to keep us in ill till we be in hell it self Who would be advised and take counsel by such an enemy Therefore let us take heed we have it in us but let it live in us onely and not rule in us although it will be in us as long as we live yet let us not be ruled by it let us not admit it to counsel but suppresse it and keep it under Especially those that are Magistrates that are called to publick businesse let them not bring private respects to publick businesse but bring publick hearts to intend the good of Religion and of their Countrey before any private interest whatsoever And not consult according to the flesh If I do this I shall displease such and such that is no matter If it were not for Religion if a man have a publick mind such as the very Heathens had he would lay aside base respects in publick businesse Therefore I humbly desire such to examine deeply their intentions and purposes what they aym at whether to serve God and the Church and their Countrey or to serve themselves that if so be they may be safe they care not what befall their Countrey or Religion or whatsoever That is it that moves God to indignation to crosse their intentions for when God sees they set earth above heaven the world present before the world to come and the dirt of the world base respects before those that are greater that they invert the order of things he crosseth them in that they aime at because they crosse him in neglecting their duty Therefore as we would have things succeed well let us labour to consult not according to the flesh for our private advantage but for what may make most first for Religion and then for the publick good Again we may learn from hence That A ground of lightnesse is to purpose things according to the flesh To purpose according to carnal reason and affection it is a ground of lightnesse For mark the reason of it when a man is carried in his deliberations by carnal respects this will be for my profit this will incline such a man to me by this I shall get such a place c. when he is led by low and base respects it makes him light with God though he be never so good otherwise Because carnal respects build on outward things that are uncertain therefore all resolutions built on outward things and carnal respects are uncertain He that takes fleshly wisdome for his counsellour and adviser and intelligencer what doth he he is led with by-respects with one of the three Idols of the world some honour or pleasure or base profit now when the rule of deliberation is the flesh and the flesh carries to outward things that are variable a man is alway light and inconstant that propounds the deliberation of things according to the flesh What is the reason that a wicked man though he be not notoriously outwardly wicked but a shrewd man that is for himself that makes himself the end of all his projects what is the reason that such a man can never be a sound friend he is never a sound friend he is onely a friend so long as it makes for himself so long as he gets to his own in all things As the Jesuites use to say so it is true of every natural man they do all they do and consult in an order to spiritual things they do this and that and over-rule Kings and States and this is for the good of society and in an order of spiritual things A man that hath not grace in him above nature and above respects of nature he can never be a sound friend for when fleshly advantages come of pleasures and profits and honours when these rise one way or other there he leaves the bonds of friendship because there is a nearer bond between him and the things of this life he is led with the flesh and deliberates according to the flesh And that is the reason likewise why such a man can never be a good Christian he can never go through the variety of times why because he consults of things according to the flesh and as long as Religion stands with his aimes that he may enjoy his riches and his greatnesse and the contentments of this life with Religion so long he is content to be Religious if Religion crosse him in these he hath not learned to deny himself and
the soul under God A man may keep his wisdome and understanding safe still so he keep it under and let Divine truth sway and bring all in us into captivity to it self But alas the scope of the world is contrary instead of bringing the soul into captivity to Gods truth to be led by him to have no thoughts no aimes contrary to Gods will they make Gods truth a captive and prisoner to their own base affections as S. Paul saith Rom. 1. They hold the truth they withhold it as a prisoner under base affections And whereas all should serve the main end and intend better things they make a counterfeit loving of good things to serve their carnal ends they make heaven serve earth they make God serve man the Spirit serve the flesh they invert the order of things clean which is as contrary to nature if they had wisdome to consider it as that the heaven should be under the earth and the water above the air it overturnes all in Religion when we suffer carnal wisdome to rule all to imprison that light that God hath put into the heart and conscience and the light of his Word to base affections and not to bring all into captivity to the Spirit and the Word When we come to hear Gods Word we should consider that we come not for recreation but we come to a Counsellour to that that should sway and direct all our wayes and words to that that is not onely our comfort in the time of affliction but our counsellour as David saith it was the man of his counsel So we come here to be counselled to hear that which must direct us in the way to heaven we must come with a purpose to be guided by that to be taught As Cornelius faith We are here in the presence of God to hear what shall be said to us from God Saint Paul gives this direction 1 Cor. 3. If a man will be wise in heavenly things let him be a fool first It is a strange thing Let him be a fool that is let him be content to be esteemed so let him be content to lose his reputation of wisdome that he may be wise When he knowes others to be fooles let him take a substantial course that the vain world may think him wise It is hard counsel for of all imputations in the world many and the most had rather be accounted wicked then be accounted fooles account them the veriest fools which are unfit to speak think of them in the highest degree of ill you can oh they have wit enough for that they have learning and parts for that take not away their learning and parts account them not fooles account them what you will Religion masters this base opinion Saint Paul saith Let a man be a fool if he will be wise Let no man deceive himself and think Let poor men be so and so Religion is the private mans good and let them make conscience of such things but for us that are in place and authority we must rule by policy and he knowes not how to rule that is not a Politician Let no man deceive himself there is no man great or small but if he will be wise for heaven let him be a fool let him take courses that are conscionable though he be accounted a fool for his pains Let us be jealous of our own hearts in private and publick let us take heed to our own hearts that the flesh come not in Let us labour to be acquainted with Christ that he may be our counsellour and our guide in all things Specially now when we come to the Communion we now renew out Covenant with God and our acquaintance with Christ Jesus we come to feast with him Do we think to have any good by him any benefit by his death except we make him our King and Prophet to rule and guide us except we make him our Counsellour Therefore let us think before-hand we cannot come as we ought to receive the Communion unlesse we intend before-hand to renounce the flesh Christs enemy can you be welcome guests and resolve after to be led and ruled by his enemy If you will have good by Christs death as a Priest to reconcile you to God as this Sacrament seales the benefits of his death the breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the wine come with a purpose to be ruled and guided by this Counsellour in all things he is the great Counsellour Isai. 9. 7. that is willing to advise us by his Word and Spirit in all the particular passages of our lives and the more we enter into acquaintance with him by the Sacrament and maintain it by private prayer and by all sacred means the more ready he will be to do the office of a friend and counsellour in all the passages of our lives to advise us what is best I had occasion in verse 12. to speak at large of fleshly wisdome therefore I passe it That with me there should be yea yea and nay nay This sets down the manner of inconstancy the form of it yea yea to be on the affirmative part once and then nay nay the negative to be of one mind and peremptory in it and then to be of another mind and peremptory in that this is the issue of carnal wisdome and followes on it The things that I purpose do I purpose according to the flesh that with me there should be yea yea and nay nay insinuating that those that purpose things according to the flesh they are yea yea and nay nay Whence first we may observe which I touched before a little but it issues more properly hence from the dependance That Carnal men are alway inconstant men For a fleshly man led with the flesh being led with the things of the world and they being inconstant he must needs be as that which he is ruled by A man cannot stand safe upon the Ice because it self is not safe a man cannot stand in a thing that stands not that hath no consistence Now a Carnal man he hath no prop to hold him but the things below he cleaves to them and they are inconstant and variable and uncertain He that purposeth according to the flesh is yea yea nay nay Therefore his love is yea yea nay nay If he may have good by you he is yea yea he is for you but can you do him no good he is nay nay he will not own you then Therefore one way to be constant is not to be ruled according to the flesh which I spake of before for they that are are yea yea nay nay Therefore take heed how you trust carnal men in near intimate society as in marriage Or in near friendship never take a man that hath his own aimes and ends for he will respect you no more then he can advance his own ends by you Trust not the Wife of thy bosome saith the Prophet if she
we must swear by him And indeed it is a service of God and to good purpose when Christians swear to stablish and determine truths that otherwise are doubtfull They were doubtfull of S. Paul's doctrine and his person saith he To put you out of doubt of the truth I speak to you I dare call God to witnesse it is true and sound The Apostle doth so once after in this Chapter therefore I reserve the further handling of an oath to verse 23. because the word there is more infallible I call God to record upon my soul c. The next thing I observe hence is this That The believing that Gods Word is Gods Word and is certain it is a matter of great consequence It is of great consequence for Gods people that look to be saved to be stablished in their opinion and judgment of Divine truth that it is certain and not flexible and mutable according to our wills and conceits and dispositions but is yea alway the same as God himself the Authour of it For laying this for a ground that I said before that S. Paul takes God to witnesse he would not enterpose an oath but in a matter of great consequence therefore it is a matter of great consequence to be setled in this that the Scripture is Divine truth unalterable and unchangeable An oath is never good as I said but when it is necessary It must not onely be in truth but there must be a necessity It must not only be taken in righteousnesse but in judgment a man must do it in discretion when the thing is not determinable any other way Therefore it is a matter of great consequence that men take the Word of truth not to be as the Oracles of Apollo and of the Devill true one way and false another The Devil would escape the imputation of a lie though he be a liar but Gods Oracles be Divine they be yea And it is good that we think them to be so to be constant undoubted certain and unmovable Therefore the Apostle seales it with an oath he would not seal a slight truth by an oath but saith he As God is true our word to you was not yea and nay c. And Saint Paul saw a disposition in them to suspect the truth of God as indeed we are proner to believe the lies of our own hearts and the suggestions of Satan and the counsell of Politicians of carnall friends then to believe God himself Therefore partly for the indisposition in us and partly for the great exigence and necessity of the thing to believe that Gods Word is his Word that it is truth he seales it with an oath God is true It is a point of great consequence The reason is God can have no service else and we can have no comfort If we do not believe the Word of God to be undoubtedly true in great temptations and assaults what armour of proof shall we have we can have no comfort nor grace For sometimes subtile and strong temptations to evill come if the Word of God be not more undoubted to me then the present profit or pleasure or whatsoever if the temptation be ready and I be not built on and settled on some grounded truth that I know to be true as God is true when the temptation is strong and our faith weak where are we a man presently yields to base lusts and temptations And so in matter of danger and despair when a man is tempted to despair if he cannot build on this God is true and his Word is as true as himself he will not the death of a sinner c. here a man is swallowed up It is no matter how strong the foundation be if the building on that foundation be weak If a strong man stand in a slippery place down he falls if a man stand slippery and have a weak standing on a strong place on a strong foundation if he have a weak building on a strong foundation he shall soon be cast off So the Word of God is true in it self but if we be not perswaded so that it is infallibly true that it is alway yea we shall be shaken with temptations When we are tempted to sin the temptation is present we are sure of the temptation if we be not more sure of somewhat against the temptation somewhat out of the Word to beat back the darts of Satan when we are tempted to sin and to despair for sin down we go and therefore it is a matter of infinite consequence to be perswaded of Divine truth What makes many as they are in courses that are corrupt in their callings nothing but this they stagger whether it be true or no that there shall be a Judgment they stagger whether it be true or no that the Scripture saith if they were perswaded that it were yea as true as God is in heaven as true as they have soules so their soules must be called to Judgment for that they speak and do would they do as they do Therefore S. Paul stablisheth them by an oath God is true and as God is true our Word to you was not yea and nay Therefore take in good part with thankfulnesse the means that God hath ordained to strengthen our faith and assurance of the Word of God and the Promises of God Therefore he hath appointed the Sacrament for that purpose I say there is nothing in the world so strengthened as the soul of a Christian if he give himself to Gods truth to be ruled by it For if we will believe God we have his promise That Whosoever believes in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life rich promises precious promises as the Scripture calls them We have not onely promises but they are sealed with an oath Now an oath is an unchangeable thing Heb. 9. 16. we have promises and oath that we might have strong consolation whatsoever might secure man we have Besides his oath we have his seal his Sacrament It was his love to condescend to make any Covenant with sinfull creatures that upon any terms he would give them life everlasting It was a higher degree of love to set Christ to be the foundation of this peace and of this Covenant that now God and we may be at peace with satisfaction to Divine Justice that he is the foundation of the peace between God and us Now God may be mercifull without wrong without impeachment to his Justice that is a higher degree of mercy to enter into Covenant and to give Christ to be the foundation of all And then it is a higher degree then that to secure us of the Covenant that Christ is ours to seal the Word with an oath and with the Sacrament which is the seal of the Covenant what could God do more What a horrible sin therefore is unbelief that we should tremble at to call Gods love and truth in question But yet we are prone to it
see our interest in his humiliation and exaltation in glory because he is the second Adam These things should raise up our thoughts wondrously to think of his humiliation and his exaltation and of the love and mercy of God in him And then think of what you will nothing is discouraging think of death of hell of the day of Judgment think of Satan of the curse of the Law they are terrible things I but think of the Son of God of Christ anointed of God the Father to satisfie the Law to satisfie his Justice to overcome Satan to crush his head to be our Saviour as well as our Judge at the day of Judgment these things will make all vanish Things that are most tetrible to the nature of man without the consideration of Jesus Christ the Son of God all are most comfortable when we think of him Now when we think of Satan we think of one crushed and trod under foot as he shall be ere long When we think of Judgment we think of a Saviour that shall be our Judge when we think of God we think of God reconciled in Christ. We have accesse by Christ to the Throne of grace he is now in heaven and makes intercession for us When we think of death we think of a passage to life where we shall be with him I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. So the things that are most uncomfortable yet bring the consideration of them to Christ exalted in heaven having triumphed over all these in our nature and sits at Gods right hand The thoughts of these things are comfortable meditations Nay think of that which is the most terrible of all the Justice of God his anger for sin it is a matter of comfort above all other God is just to punish and revenge sin what then because he is just he will not punish â—…hing twice but his justice is fully satisfied aad contented in his Son Christ Jesus whom he hath anointed and predestinate and sent himself and he must needs acknowledge that satisfaction that is done by him that he hath sent himself hereupon we come to think comfortably of Gods Justice God out of Christ is a consuming fire there is nothing more terrible then God without Christ but now in Christ we can think of the most terrible thing in God with comfort Therefore S. Paul makes it the main scope of his preaching and so should we of ours and you should make it your main desire in hearing and the main subject matter of your meditating something concerning Christ. Let us often think of our nature in him now exalted in heaven and that we shall follow him ere long our head is gone before and he will not suffer his body alwayes to rot in the earth let us think of his natures and his offices and all the blessed prerogatives that we have by him and all the enemies that are conquered by him that in him we have God reconciled and the Devil vanquished we have heaven opened and hell shut we have our sins pardoned and our imperfections by little and little cured in him we have all in all There are four things that the Apostle speaks of which includes all 1 Cor. 1. 30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made to us wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption Christ Jesus is all in all if we be ignorant he is our wisdome if we want righteousnesse and holinesse to stand before God he is ouâ—… righteousnesse we stand righteous being cloathed with his righteousnesse If we want Grace Of his fulnesse we receive Grace for Grace he is sanctification to us If we be miserable as we shall be to our sense our bodies shall be turned to rottennesse he is our redemption not onely of the soul but of the body he shall make our bodies like his glorious body as he makes our soules glorious by his Spirit conforming them to his own Image here he means here redemption of our bodies from corruption as well as of our soules from sin He is all in all in sin he is sanctification in death he is life in ignorance he is wisdome there is nothing ill in us but there is abundant satisfaction and remedy in Christ. I speak this the rather to shew what reason S. Paul had to stand on this That all his preaching was to bring Christ Jesus among them I go on The Son of God Jesus Christ preached among you All the good we have by Christ is conveyed by the Ministery Despise that and despise Christ himself Therefore whatsoever benefits we have by Christ they are attributed to preaching they are attributed to the Gospel as it is preached and unfolded therefore it is called the Gospel of the Kingdome The Word of reconciliation The Word of life The Word of faith all these are by Christ but it is no matter whatsoever we have by Christ we must have it by Jesus Christ unfolded in the Ministery of the Word despise the Ministery that is contemptible to flesh and blood and despise Christ himself despise the Kingdome and life and all for Christ preached is that we must relie on Christ unfolded the bread of life must be broken the sacrifice must be anatomized and laid open Christ Jesus the Son of God must be preached he profits not but as he is preached his riches must be unfolded The unsearchable riches of Christ. Therefore God that hath appointed us to be saved by Christ hath appointed and ordained preaching to lay open Jesus Christ among us But to come to the third Point why doth he bring in consent to help By me and Silvanus and Timotheus would not his own authority serve the turn I answer no it would not sometimes In it self it will but in regard of the weaknesse of men it is necessary to joyn the consent of others S. Paul was an Apostle of Christ but he knew that they were so weak that they would regard his testimony the more for the joynt testimony of Timotheus and Silvanus and the rest God considers not so much what is true in it self as how to stablish our faith in it As in the Sacrament would not God give Christ and his benefits is he not true of his Word Yes but he gives the Sacrament for us his promises are sure enough yet he condescends to our weaknesse to adde Sacrament and oath and all the props that may be So the men of God that are led by the Spirit of God though their own authority were sufficient yet they condescend to the weaknesse of others Therefore S. Paul alledgeth with himself Silvanus and Timotheus to strengthen them the better Then again consent is a lovely thing and proceeds from love how sweet a thing is it for brethren to dwell together in unity therefore we ought to stand much upon consent if it may perswade us But as Cyprian saith well it must be consent in the truth Consent that is not
of Christ why He hath nothing but present things with a great deale of addition of misery and his greatnesse makes him more sensible of his misery it makes him more tender and apprehensive then other men The other he wants many comforts of this life he wants the performance he is rich in bills and bonds God is bound to him he hath promised he will not forsake him but he will be his God in life to death and for everlasting he hath title to all the promises Godlinesse hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. Happie man he hath so much performance for the present as is usefull for his safe conduct to bring him to heaven he shall have daily bread he that will give him a Kingdom will not deny him bread he that will give him a countrey will give him safe conduct And besides that he hath here by performance he hath rich and precious promises and they are all Yea and Amen they are certain His life is uncertain his estate in the world is changeable here his life is as a vapour and the comforts of life are lesse then life when life it self the foundation of these comforts is but a vapour so uncertain what are all the comforts of life yet a Christian hath comfort here the promises are invested into him and lodged in his heart and made his owne by faith Faith hath a wondrous peculiarizing vertue it makes a man own that which is generally propounded in the Gospell Now faith making the promises his own and they are certain a Christian take him at all uncertainties he hath somewhat to build on that is Yea and Amen that is undoubtedly constant and certain that will stick by him when all things fail him I speak this to commend the estate of a believing repentant Christian to make you in love with it In all the changes and varieties in this world a Christian hath somewhat to take to And likewise in all the dangers of this life he hath a rock to go to a hiding place God hath chambers of Providence as it is Isay 26. he bids the Church come into thy Chambers God hath a hiding place and secret roomes to hide children in when it is good for them in the time of Pestilence and War in the time of publike disturbance when there is a confusion of all things Come into thy Chambers God is a resting place and a hiding place he is stiled so every where in the Psalmes Psalme 18. My Rock and my shield as if David had said I have many troubles in the world but in God is my defence for he is my Rock my Shield and all whatsoever is defensive I have it in him What a comfort is this in all dangers a Christian knowes either he shall be safe here or in heaven and therefore he doth rest He dewells in the secret of the Almighty Psalme 91. that is in the love and the protection of God Almighty and as Moses saith Psalme 90. Thou art our habitation from everlasting to everlasting that is God is a dwelling place for him that builds on his promise for God and his Word are all one Thou art our dwelling place c. He saw they dropped away in the wildernesse by the wrath of God as we do now by the Pestilence and Moses made that Psalme he took occasion to meditate of the frailty of mans life We are as grasse as a tail that is told but what is our estate in God in the promises Thou art our habitation from everlasting to everlasting We dwell not long in the world sicknesse may come and sweep us away but thou art our habitation we dwell in God when we are dead when we are out of the world we dwell in God in Christ for ever Our estate in Christ is an everlasting estate Therefore in Psalme 112. the Psalmist saith of the righteous man there That he is not troubled for ill newes He is not senselesse he is very sensible but yet notwithstanding he is not shaken from his rest from his rock and stay for no ill newes or tydings why The Psalmist gives the reason his heart is fixed upon what foundation upon the promises and providence of God God hath promised to provide for him he is his Father and therefore he is not afraid of ill tydings What a blessed estate then is it to be in Christ and to have promises in Christ to be protected and preserved here so as is for our good and to have such a state in God for him to be our habitation and hiding place from everlasting to everlasting If our hearts be fixed here let us hear of ill tydings of war of this sicknesse and contagion let it be what it will if our hearts be fixed blessed men are we But if we have nothing to take to when trouble comes we are as I said before as a man in a storme without a hiding place Now every Word of God saith the Psâ—…lmist is a tried Word as silver tryed in the fire The promises are tryed promises that we may rest on them and as we are Christians what are we but men of promise the best is behind and what is our comfort in this world God lets down his love to us in gracious promises and he gives us a taste of the performance as Children have somewhat of their inheritance in their nonage to keep them so somewhat of heaven to comfort our soules we have but the main is to come and the performance is left till then therefore we cannot too much consider of this comfortable point Consider how many promises we have in the Word the certainty of them that they are Yea and Amen and in whom they are founded in him that is Amen himself for Christ is Amen the true and faithfull witnesse Revel 1. these are comfortable considerations Are the promises of God in Christ Yea and Amen Let us divide men who may make any use of them all men they are either such as are in Christ or such as are not in Christ. All the promises being made in Christ what comfort or what good can those that are not yet in Christ have by the promises I answer till they be in Christ none at all for a man out of Christ is out of the favour of God God cannot look on such a man but as the object of his wrath and as fuell for his vengeance and therefore there is no hope for such a man till he be in Christ. All other things in the world cannot comfort such a man for alas his being in the world his being rich his being in favour with such or such what are they fading beings that fail and himself with them he stands on the Ice they slip and he slips with them What are all beings in death ifa man have not a more stable being in Jesus Christ What comfort is there then for such a man by
Promises in him Yea and Amen will he give me the greater and will he not give me the lesse Sometimes by the lesser be encouraged to hope for the greater sometimes quicken our deadnesse and dulnesse in believing the lesser with the undoubted performance of the greater Will God give me life everlasting and will he not give me provision in my pilgrimage till I come there undoubtedly he will Fear not little flock it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdome saith Christ. They were distrustful for the things of this life Do you think saith he that he will not give you the things of this life that keeps a Kingdome for you Fear not Again when we hear any promise in the Word of God turn it into a prayer put Gods bond in suit as it were his promises are his bonds sue him on his bond he loves to be sued on his bond and he loves that we should wrastle with him by his promises Why Lord thou hast made this and this promise thou canst not deny thy self thou canst not deny thine own truth thou canst not cease to be God thou canst as well cease to be God as deny thy promise that is thy self So let us put the promises into suit as David Psal. 119. if it be his Lord remember thy promise wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust as if God had forgotten his promise Lord remember thy primise I put thee in mind of thy promise wherein thâ—… hast caused thy servant to trust If I be deceived thou hast deceived me thou hast made these promises and caused me to trust in thee and thou never failest those that trust in thee What makes a man faithful Trust to a man makes him faithful so when God is honoured with our trusting of him it makes him faithful Let us therefore put in suit his promises of provision and protection every day in the way of our calling and for necessary grace and comfort that he will not fail us in any necessary grace to bring us to heaven considering that he hath filled our nature with all grace in Christ. Again let us take this course when we hear of rich and precious promises that are made labour to know them What shall we have an inheritance a portion and not labour to know it Let us labour to know all our portion and to know it of those that search the Word of God to be glad to hear any thing concerning the priviledges and prerogatives of a Christian those that dig the Mines of the Scripture which is the office of the Ministers let us labour to know all our priviledges Let not Satan rob us of one priviledge Every promise is precious they are rich promises yet they are no more then God thought necessary for us he thought all little enough to stablish our faith let us not lose one we cannot be without one let us labour to know them And when we know them work them upon our hearts by meditation and shame our selves upon it say is it true are these promises so is it true that God hath revealed these things in his Word To whom hath he made them to Angels or to beasts No to men to sinners to men in the world to comfort them they are their provision their inheritance as David saith Psal. 119. Thy word is my inheritance and my portion they are sweeter then the honey and the honey-comb Are they so Do I believe this or do I not believe it Yes I do If I do can I believe them and be so uncomfortable Let us shame our selves do I believe the promises of life everlasting the promises of perseverance the promise that God will hide me in danger that he will be my habitation and my hiding place and do I look to unlawful means Do I live without God in the world as if there were no Promise what a shame is this There is a weaknesse in my faith certainly when a branch withers there is a fault in the root so there is a defect in the radical grace that it drawes not juice out of the promises as it should there is a defect in my faith therefore I will look where the defect is and strengthen my faith Thus we should shame our selves Can I hear these Promises and be no more joyful and be no more affected Can I use indirect means and yet believe that God is Al-sufficient to me in the Covenant Certainly I cannot Therefore let us come to the tryal to some few evidences that a man doth believe in the promises He that believes the promises of God in Christ to be Yea and Amen doubtlesse he will be affected answerable to the things promised saith David Thy Statutes they are the joy of my heart The Promises will be the joy and rejoycing of our heart He that can hear of promises and not be affected certainly he believes them not When a man thinks of his inheritance and of his evidences that they are clear that he shall enjoy it without suit or trouble it comforts him he cannot think of it without comfort Cannot a man think of a little pelf of the earth without comfort when he knowes he hath assurance to it and shall we think of heaven and happinesse and not rejoyce will not these be the joy of a mans heart certainly they will affect him When good things are apprehended by faith will they not work upon the affections certainly they will Again where the promises are believed they will quicken us to all chearfull obedience certainly if God will assist me with strength and comfort if I go on in his wayes and in the end of all give me life everlasting this will quicken me to all obedience Therefore those that go deadly and dully as if they had no encouragement here nor promise of glory after they believe not the promises For God doth not set us on work as Pharaoh set the children of Israel to make brick without straw but when he bids us do any thing he promiseth us grace and gives us his Spirit and after grace he gives glory If men did believe this they would go about Gods work without dulnesse and staggering so far as we are dull and stagger in the work of God so far our faith is weak in the promises of God Again as they quicken in regard of comfort so they purge in regard of holinesse for they make men study mortification and sanctification 2 Cor. 6. and the beginning of the 7th Having these promises Let us purge our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit perfect sanctification in the fear of God Having these promises So that the promises as they have a quickning so they have a purging power and that upon sound reasoning Doth God promise that he will be my Father and I shall be his son and doth he prcmise me life everlasting and doth that estate require purity and no unclean thing shall come there
the sweetnesse of his spirit joynes us with you he saith not you with us but as if they were as firmly set in Christ as himself he saith us with you he puts them together with himself for indeed all of us one with another weak Christians and strong Christians fetch all that we have from one Fountain draw all from one Spring are led all by one Spirit You have here also the Character of a sound Christian he loves and values all Christians A carnal man may value excellent Christians that have excellent parts of whom he hopes for kindnesse in some peculiar regard but he loves not all the Saints Love to all Christians as they be Christians because they have some anointing of the Spirit some earnest somewhat they have to be valued is a note of a good and sound Christian Another reason why he joynes us with you is to shew that the working of the Spirit it is not in the members severed from the body but as they are in the body The Spirit works in us but in us with you and in you with us that is as all the spirits come from the head and heart to the severall members of the body so they must be united they must be in the body before they can have the benefit of the spirits there must be an union with Christ the head and with the rest of the members before we can have the Spirit to strengthen us and anoint us those that rend themselves from the body cannot hope for stablishing from the head This should be a bond to ty us to the communion of Saints we have all that we have in the body we all grow in the body we are all stones in one building whereof Christ is the foundation therefore as stones in an Arch strengthen one another so should we Let us look for grace to be given in the communion of Saints it is an ill sign when any man will be a solitary Christian and will stand alone by himself As we are knit to Christ by faith so we must be knit to the communion of Saints by love That which we have of the Spirit is had in the communion of Saints It is worth ohserving the better to cherish Christian lovingnesse Thus you see the parts of this sentence in which we have the grace it self here spoken of Stablishing In whom we are stablished In Christ. By whom by God And who those are that are stablished Us with you To make now some Application of all If it be God that stablisheth us let us make this Use of it Let God have the glory of our stablishing If we have it in dependance upon God by Prayer let us return all by praise and thanksgiving all comes of his meer grace let all return to his meer glory Not unto us but unto thy Name give the praise It is the song of the Church on earth and the song of the Church triumphant in heaven that all glory be to God in all the whole carriage of salvation The promises are his stablishing is his that he would make a Covenant it is his that he will perform his Covenant to us it is his that he will enable us to perform the Covenant it is by his strength all is his therefore both the Church here and the Church in heaven our song should be Great and gracious and merciful is the true God that is so gracious and righteous in all his promises Let us labour I beseech you for stablishing especially in these times Is it not a shame that we have gotten no more ground now then we had threescore yeares ago nay that we rather call principles into question The Pope hath been Antichrist and Traditions have been accounted Traditions and not equal with the Word what shall we now stagger in the foundation is here our progresse Oh beloved labour to be stablished in the present truth that you may not be a prey for every subtile man And here especially I would speak to the younger sort that they should labour for this stablishing betimes before they be engaged in the world and before other businesses possesse them over-deeply for falshood hath more correspondency and suits better with our corruption specially if it be forced from subtil wits it prevailes much with unstable dispositions those that are uncatechized and ungrounded they are soon led away and therefore with other studies we should study the truth and remember that our best calling is to be a Christian and our best honour to be able to stand for the truth we professe Labour to have fundamental graces established and then all will be stablished if the root be strengthened the tree stands fast radical graces must be strengthened First Humility The foundation of Religion is very low and humility and abasing is in all parts of Religion every grace hath a mixture of humility because our graces are from God they are dependences Now humility is an emptying grace and acknowledgeth that in my self I am nothing Spiritual poverty with humility acknowledgeth that I in my self am a dependent creature if God withhold his influence if God withdraw his grace I shall be as other men as Sampson when his hair was cut Our strength is in God altogether Let us pray that we may be humble God gives grace to the humble When I am weak saith blessed S. Paul then I am strong that is when I am humble and feel and acknowledge my weaknesse then I am strong or else a man is not strong when he is weak but when he feeles and acknowledgeth his weaknesse Therefore let us labour to grow in humility and self-denial and we shall grow in strength Then again another radical grace to be stablished is Faith Depend upon God altogether for considering our strength is out of our selves and faith being a grace that goes out of our selves and layes hold of that that is out of our selves faith is necessary to our stablishing Believe and ye shall be stablished saith the Prophet Though the Promise be sure in it self yet we must be established by faith How doth God stablish us by working a spirit of faith therefore strengthen faith strengthen all other graces all have their issue from faith And faith comes from sound knowledge knowledge therefore hath the name of faith This is eternal life to know thee strengthen and increase knowledge Historical faith is nothing but knowledge when we know the Word of God to be as it is and that is the ground of justifying faith and dependance For the more I know God in Covenant as he hath revealed himself and the more I know the promise and the more I know Christ the more I shall depend upon him and trust in him They that know thy Name will trust in thee Psal. 9. Therefore let us labour for certainty of knowledge that we may have certainty of faith What is the reason that our faith is weak because men
things Magistrates and Officers go with their broad Seal and deliver things that they would have carried with authority sealed and the Seal of the Prince is the authority of the Prince so that a Seal is to make things authentical to give validity to things answerable to the value and esteem of him that seales These four principal uses there is of sealing Now God by his Spirit doth all these for God by his Spirit sets the stamp and likenesse of Christ upon us he distinguisheth us from others from the great refuse of the world he appropriates us to himself and like wise he authorizeth us and puts an excellency upon us to secure us against all when we have Gods Seal upon us we stand against all accusations Who shall separate us from the love of God we dare defâ—… all objections and all accusations of conscience whatsoever a man that hath Gods Seal he stands impregnable it so authorizeth him in his conscience for it is given us for our assurance and not for Gods God seales not because he is ignorant He knowes who are his But what is the Spirit it self this seal or the graces of the Spirit or the comforts of the Spirit what is this seal for that is the question now whether the Spirit it self or the work of the Spirit or the comfort and joy of the Spirit I answer indeed the Spirit of God where it is is a sufficient seal to us that God hath set us out for his for whosoever hath the Spirit of Christ is his and whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his but the Spirit is the Authour of this sealing and the sealing that is in us is wrought by the Spirit so that except you take the Spirit for that which is wrought by the Spirit you have not the right comprehension of sealing and so the Spirit with that which the Spirit works is the seal for the Spirit is alway with his own seal with his own stamp Other seales are removed from the stamp and the stamp remains though the seal be gone but the Spirit of God dwells and keeps a perpetual residence in the heart of a Christian guiding him moving him enlightning of him governing him comforting him doing all offices of a seal in his heart till he have brought him to heaven for the Holy Ghost never leaves us it is the sweetest inhabitant that ever lodging was given to he doth all that is done in the soul and he is perpetually with his own work in joy and comfort though he seems sometimes to be in a corner of the heart and is not discernable yet he alway dwells in us the Spirit is alwayes with the stamp it sets upon the soul. What is that stamp then to come to the matter more particularly what is that that the Spirit seales us with especially what is that work I answer the Spirit works in this order for the most part and in some of these universally First the Spirit doth together with the Word which is the instrument of the Spirit the Chariot in which it is carried convince us of the evil that is in us and of the ill estate we are in by reason thereof it convinceth us that we are sinners and of the fearful estate that we are in by sin this is the first work of the Spirit on a man in the state of nature it convinceth us of the ill that is in us and of the ill due unto us and thereupon it abaseth us therefore it is called the Spirit of bondage because it makes a man tremble and quake till he see his peace in Christ. When the Spirit hath done that then it convinceth a man by a better by a sweeter light discovering a remedy in Christ who is sealed of God to reconcile God and us And as he enlightneth the soul convinceth it of the all-sufficiency that is in Christ and the authority that he hath being sent and sealed of God for that purpose so he works on the affections he inclines the heart to go to God in Christ and to cast himself on him by faith Now when the soul is thus convinced of the evil that is in us and of the good that is in Christ and with this convincing is enclined and moved by the holy Spirit as indeed the holy Spirit doth all then upon this the Spirit vouchsafeth a superadded work as the Spirit doth still adde to his own work he addes a confirming work which is here called Sealing that seal is not faith for the Apostle saith After you believed ye were sealed so that this sealing is not the work of faith but it is a work of the Spirit upon faith assuring the soul of its estate in grace But what need confirmation when we believe Is not faith confirmation enough when a man may by a reflect act of the soul know that he is in the state of grace by believing It is true as the natural conscience knows what is in a man as the natural judgment can reflect so the spiritual understanding can reflect and when he believes he knowes that he believes without the Spirit by the reflect act of the understanding except he be in case of temptaton what needs sealing then This act of ours in believing and the knowledge of our believing it is oft terribly shaken and God is wondrous desirous as we see by the whole passage of the Scripture that we should be secure of his love he knowes that he can have no glory and we can have no comfort else and rherefore when we by faith have sealed to his truth he knowes that we need still further sealing that our faith be current and good and to strengthen our faith for all is little enough in the time of temptation and therefore the single witnesse of our soul by the reflect act knowing that we do believe when we do believe it is not strong enough in great temptations for in some tryals the soul is so carried and hurried that it cannot reflect upon it self nor know what is in it self without much ado therefore first the Spirit works faith whereby we seal Gods truth Joh. 3. He that believes hath put to his seal that God is true when God by his Spirit moves me to honour him by sealing his truth that Whosoever believes in Christ shall be saved then God seales this my belief with an addition of his holy Spirit so that this sealing is a work upon believing and as faith honours God so God honours faith with a superadded seal and confirmation But yet we not come particularly enough to know what this Seal is When we honour God by sealing his truth then the Spirit seales us certainly then the Spirit doth it by presence by being with us in our soules What then doth the Spirit work when we believe How shall we know that there is such a spiritual sealing I answer the Spirit in this seaâ—…g works these four things First a secret voyce or
any thing as we may be of Gods love for the time to come We have a common speech amongst us I know what I have but what I shall have I know not It is an ill speech thou knowest not what thou hast for these worldly things a man hath them so to day as they may take to themselves wings and be gone to morrow for they are but vanity A may be as rich as Job in the morning and as poor as Job at night so that a man knowes not what he hath but for the time to come for grace and glory he may say Though I know not what I have or how long I shall have it I know what I shall have I know that neither things present nor things to come shal be able to separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ. So that you see here a foundation of the sweet and comfortable Doctrine of perseverance Grace is the Earnest of glory and it doth but differ in degrees the beginning of glory is here in grace the consummation of it hereafter We are anointed Kings here we shall be Kings in heaven we are sons here in this world we shall be heires in heaven we shall be adopted there in soul and body here we are adopted in soul for in this life Christs first coming was for the soul his second coming is for body and soul therefore the resurrection is called the day of regeneration because then it shall be perfected here regeneration is onely begun So that in respect that the work of the Spirit the graces of the Spirit are called an Earnest we may know and be assured of perseverance in grace and that that which we have now in the beginning shall be accomplished Oh how should this set us upon desires to have the blessed work of the Spirit upon us to have the Spirit to set his seal upon us to be Christs to have this Earnest and to get more and more Earnest till we have the full bargain accomplished in heaven Thirdly I told you that an Earnest is part of the whole they therefore that have not the Earnest cannot look for the bargain The Observation hence is That Those that look to be happy must first look to be holy This Point I mean to touch very briefly I am loath to passe it by though it be not the principal thing I aim at because it may serve for a kind of tryal whether a man have any right to heaven or no. It is the ordinary presumptuous errour of common Christians to think to go to heaven out of unclean courses with Lord have mercy upon us but miserable wretches are they that have not this Earnest of the Spirit in them an Earnest of heaven beforehand in grace and peace and joy We must all read our happinesse in our holinesse and therefore it is that happinesse in heaven and holinesse here which is happinesse inchoate have both one title to shew that we cannot have the one without the other we must enter into heaven here in this life The stones you know they were hewed before they were brought to the building of the Temple they were all made and fitted before-hand and so all that shall be stones in heaven they must be hewed and prepared and fitted here there must be no knocking and fitting of them there So then you see these three things touched that the holy Spirit together with the graces and comforts of it are called an Earnest and therefore that it is a part of the whole an assurance of the whole and that it shall never be taken away Now for the fourth that an Earnest is little in regard of the whole and indeed the holy Apostle aimes at this partly as well as at any other thing else an Earnest is little perhaps we have but a shilling to secure us of many pounds So then the point is this That Howsoever we may be assured of our estate in grace and likewise that we shall hold out yet the ground of this assurance is not from any great measure of grace but though it be little in quantity it may be great in assurance and security As we value an Earnest not for the worth that is in it self but because it assures us of a great bargain we have an Eye more to the consummation of the bargain then to the quantity of the Earnest so it is here Grace is but an Earnest yet notwithstanding though it be little as an Earnest is yet it is great in assurance and validity answerable to the relation of that it hath to assure us There is nothing lesse then a grain of mustard-seed but there is nothing in the world so little in proportion in a manner that comes at length to be so great as the graces of God and the work of the Spirit is The Crocodile a huge creature comes of an egg and the Oak it riseth to that greatnesse from an Acorn but what are these to the wondrous work of the new creature to be the heir of heaven rising from so little despised beginings from a little light in the understanding from a little heat in the affections from a little strength in the will compared for the littlenesse thereof to a grain of mustard-seed Indeed grace growes a man knowes not how As Christ saith of the seed sowen in the earth it growes up first to a blade and then to a stalk and then to an ear and then to be corn but a man cannot tell how so it is with the work of grace and the comforts of the Spirit when the Spirit together with the Word works upon the soul there is a blade a little and then a stalk and then Corn. First a babe in Christ little at the first and as it is little so it is much opposed As we see the Sun when it is weak in the rising in the morning there gather a great many vapours to besiege the Sun as it were as if they would put out the light of it till it comes to fuller strength and then it spends them all and gloriously shines in heaven so it is with the work of the Spirit of grace when it first ariseth in the soul there gather about it a great many doubts and discomforts the flesh riseth and casteth up all the dirt and mud it can to trouble the blessed waters of grace till it have gotten fuller and fuller strength to spend them all as it is when a man comes to be a strong Christian. But yet as little as it is seeing it is an Earnest and the first-fruits as the Apostle saith which were but little in regard of the whole harvest yet it is of the nature of the whole and thereupon it comes to secure A spark of fire is but little yet it is fire as well as the whole element of fire And a drop of water it is water as well as the whole Ocean When a man is in a dark place put the
insinuates as if he should say What can I give you better then the Holy Ghost and yet this will I give you if you ask him that is the good thing that God gives for indeed that is the seed of all graces and of all comfort and therefore a world of promises are included in that promise that he will give the Spirit to them that ask him Labour by these and such like means for the Spirit and then if you have the Spirit the Earnest of the Spirit and the seal of the Spirit then mark what will come of such a temper of soul that will go through all conditions whatsoever come what will for the Spirit is above all and the comforts of the Spirit are above all earthly comforts and the graces of the Spirit are able to encounter with all temptations So that a man that hath the Spirit stands impregnable the work of grace cannot be quenched because it is the effect and the work of the Spirit all the powers of all the Devils in hell cannot stirre it God may hide his comfort for a time to humble us but to quench the work of the Spirit once wrought in the heart all the power of all the Devils in hell cannot quench the least spark of saving grace it will carry us through all opposition whatsoever Let a man never baulk or decline in a good cause for any thing that he shall suffer for the seal and the Earnest of the Spirit is never more strong then when we have no other comfort by us but that when we can draw comfort from the Well-head from the Spring therefore we should labour for the Earnest of the Spirit for it will fit us for all conditions whatsoever What makes a man differ from himself what makes a man differ from another Take a man that hath the Earnest of the Spirit you shall have him defie death the world Satan and all temptations Take a man that is negligent in labouring to encrease his Earnest you shall have him weak and not like himself The Apostle Peter before the Holy Ghost came upon him the voice of a weak damsel astonished him but after how willing was he to suffer any thing Therefore let us not labour much to strengthen our selves with the things of this life or to value our selves by our dependance upon others if thou hast grace thou hast that that will stand by thee when all other things will fail for all other things will be taken away but the Comforter shall never be taken away it goes along with us continually First it works Earnest in us and then it stamps upon us his own mark and then it leads us from grace to grace and in the hour of death then especially it hath the work of a Comforter to present to us the fruits of a good and holy life and likewise the joyes of heaven when we are dead the Spirit watcheth over our bodies because they were the Temples of the Holy Ghost and at the day of judgement the same Spirit shall knit both body and soul together and after the same Spirit that hath done all this shall be all in all to us in heaven for ever and then our very bodies shall be spiritual where as now our souls even the better part of them is carnal Even as the fire when it possesseth a piece of Iron it is all fire So our bodies shall be all spiritual What a blessed thing is this to have the Spirit what are all friends to the Holy Ghost which will speak to God for us The Spirit will make request with sighes and groans and God will hear the voice of his own Spirit What prison can shut up the Spirit of God Above all labour to have more of the Spirit of God this will make us more or lesse fruitfull more or lesse glorious in our profession more or lesse willing to dye Labour to encrease this Earnest that the nearer we come to heaven the more we may be fitted for it Consider but this Reason if you want this alas we can never be thankful to God for any thing if by the Spirit we have not assurance that our state is the state of grace for otherwise we might think that God gives us all in anger as a etrnal man he alwaies fears that God fatts him as an oxe to the slaughter what a fearfull case is this that a man cannot be thankful for that he hath Labour for the Spirit that we may be thankfull to God for every thing that we may see the love of God in every thing in every refreshing we take that that love of God that fits us for heaven and that fits heaven for us it gives us daily bread the Earnest of the Spirit will make us thankfull for every thing Again labour for the Earnest of the Spirit that we may be joyfull in all conditions how can a man suffer willingly that knowes not that he is sealed with the Spirit that knowes not that God hath begun a good work in him Alas he is lumpish and heavy under the Crosse. What makes a man bear the Crosse willingly but this assurance what makes him deny himself in temptations and corruptions Oh saith the child of God the work of the Spirit is begun in me sealing me up to life everlasting shall I grieve and quench this Spirit for this base lust But a man that hath not the Spirit saith I had as good take this pleasure as have none at all for ought I know I shall have none he sees no greater pleasure then the following of his lust So that none can resist temptations but he that hath the Spirit giving him Earnest in a comfortable measure and it is a good sign when we resist temptations for spiritual reasons that the Spirit works it Again unlesse we have this Earnest of the Spirit in our hearts we can never be content to end our dayes with comfort he that hath the Earnest of the Spirit is glad of death when it comes there shall be then an accomplishment of all the bargain then the Marriage shall be consummate then shall be the year of Jubile the Sabbath of rest for ever then is the triumph and then all teares shall be wiped from our eyes But now let a man stagger and doubt whether he be the child of God or no that he cannor find any mark of the child of God in him that he cannot read the evidences of a Christian state in his soul they are so dim he sees nothing but corruption in him he sees no change no resistence of corruption he hath no Earnest Alas what a miserable case is such a man in when he comes to dye death with the eternity of misery after it who can look it in the face without hope of life everlasting without assurance of a happy change after death Therefore we should labour for the Spirit that howsoever we grow or decay in wealth and reputation let
God alone with that but above all beg of God that he would encrease in us and renew the Earnest and the stamp of the Spirit that we may have somewhat in our soules wherein we may see the Evidences of a Christian estate I might adde many things to this purpose but this is sufficient to any Judicious Christian to encourage us to labour for the Spirit above all things in the world all other are but grasse but fading but grace and glory grace and peace and joy nay the very Earnest of the Spirit is better then all earthly things for the Earnest of it is joy unspeakable and glorious and peace that passeth all understanding If the Promise and the Earnest here be so I beseech you what shall the accomplishment of the promise be if the Promises laid hold on by faith so quicken and cheer the soul and if the giving a teste of heaven lift a Christians spirit above all earthly discouragements what shall it be when the Spirit shall be all in all in us if the Earnest be so comfortable But I go on to the next Verse VERSE XXIII Moreover I call God to record upon my soul that to spare you I came not yet to Corinth IN this Verse the Apostle labours to remove suspition of levity and inconstancy there were jealousies in the minds of the Corinthians which were also fomented by some vain-glorious Teachers amongst them that laboured to undermine S. Paul in the hearts of the Corinthians as if he had not loved the Corinthians so well as they did therefore he is so carefull to clear himself in their thoughts from suspition of inconstancy and want of love to them because suspition grounded upon the lightnesse in his carriage might reflect upon his doctrine He knew well enough the malice of mans nature and therefore he is very curious and industrious to make a clear passage for himself into the hearts of these Corinthians by all means possible as we heard in part out of the 17. Verse Moreover I call God to record c. Saint Paul is here purging himself still to clear himself First he labours to clear himself from the suspition of inconstancy and want of love to them in not coming Secondly he sets down the true cause why he did not come I came not to spare you You were much to blame in many things and among the rest of the abominations among you you cherished the incestuous person and many of you doubted of the resurrection I should have been very severe if I had come therefore I came net to spare you hoping that my letter would work upon your spirits so that I need not be severe to you therefore do not suspect that for any ill mind I came not for it was to spare you that I might not be forced to be severe Then the third thing is the sealing of this speech with a serious oath I call God for record upon my soul that I came not to spare you So here is the wâ—…ping away of suspition And the setting down the true cause why he did not come And the ratifying and confirming it by an oath he makes his purgation here by an oath These three things I will briefly touch First of all you see here he avoids suspition of lightnesse which the Corinthians had of him partly by the false suggestion of proud Teachers among them who fomented their suspitious dispositions because they would weaken S. Paul's esteem among the Corinthians they had a conceit he was an uncertain man he promised to come and did not now here he declines that suspition Where first Observe these two things briefly First that the nature of man is inclined to suspition And secondly that it is the duty of men to avoid it as much as may be and to wipe it away if it cannot be avoided Mans nature is prone to suspition Mans nature is prone to suspect ill of another though never so good Christ could not avoid it because he conversed sociably with other men he was thought to be a Wine-bibber a companion of sinners And God himself was suspected of Adam in innocency the Devil is so cunning that he calls God himself into question as if he had not meant so well to him What will that impudent spirit do that will bring the creature in suspition of him that is goodnesse it self God knowes that when you eat your eyes shall be open and you shall be as Gods knowing good and evil Do you think that he intends you any good in forbidding you to eat c He did not spare Christ innocency it self cloathed with mans flesh and will he spare to bring uncharitable suspitions upon others surely he will not And then mans nature of it self is prone to suspect and think ill of another From many grounds Sometimes out of experience of the common infirmities thnt men meet with in the world out of the experience of the falshood of men they are many times prone to suspition But most commonly it is out of guiltinesse that men think ill of others because others have cause to think ill of them none are so prone to suspition as those that are worst themselves because they judge others by their own hearts The better sort of people think of others as they are and as they deserve themselves but others because they are naught they think others are so because they deserve ill they think others have deserved an ill opinion of them so many times it comes of guilt because we are not as we should be Then again it ariseth from a guilty conscience in another respect we think because men have cause though they have no wrong to themselves yet because our own hearts tell us we are ill we suspect them So from an uncharitable disposition and guiltinesse of conscience it oft-times comes Then again sometimes from the concurrence of probabilities the suiting of circumstances that makes things somewhat probable whereupon suspition may be fastened Sometimes when there is a concurrence of probabilities of the likelihood of things there suspition is prone to rise for suspition is not a determining of a thing it is but a slight kind of conceit it is more then a fear and lesse then judgment of a thing It is more then fear for he that fears suspects not suspition is a degree to judgment it doth not fully judge for then it were not suspition it is more then fear suspects not but fears It conceives slightly that such a thing should be done and yet he dares not say it is done Suspition is nothing else but an inclination of the soul to think and imagine ill of another a looking curiously under a thing or person As we use to say Envy pries into things an envious person searcheth so a suspitious person looks under to see if he can see matter of ill to fasten his ill soul upon So it inclines the soul to think
sakes Now to speak of an oath a little An oath as we know is either in judgment before a Magistrate or in particular cases between private persons And it is either assertory of a thing past or promissory of a thing to come Now this oath of S. Paul's is an assertory oath of a thing that was past to secure them that he did not come to them upon this ground that he had a mind to spare them it was no promise of any thing to come but an assertion of a thing that was past An oath is either an assertion or a promise with a calling of God to be a witnesse and a Judge to be a witnesse of the truth or a Judge if he say false You have the description of an oath in this text I say it is either an assertion of a thing past or a promise of a thing to come a sealing of this by calling God to witnesse of the thing we say and to avenge the falshood if we say false As S. Paul here I call God to record that what I say is true and upon my soul if I say false Many Conclusions concerning an oath might be raised out of the text First of all concerning the person that makes an oath he should indeed be a gracious a holy and a good man As S. Paul saith Rom 1. 9. I call God to witnesse whom I serve in my spirit A man is scarce fit to swear which is a part of Gods worship that is not good otherwise Will he care for the Religion of an oath that hath no Religion in him He whose oath should be taken should be such a man as S. Paul in some degree whose oath should be taken The Turks are careful of this to the shame of Christians they will not take an oath of an ordinary swearer It must be a man that hath somewhat in him that shall have his oath regarded Again we see by whom an oath should be taken by the Name of God we ought not to swear by creatures but by God himself nor to swear by any Idol as the Masse and by Mary and such like It is a taking God to witnesse An oath is a part of Gods service a part of divine worship as it is Deut. 6. and other places now we ought to serve God only therefore we ought not to use the name of any creature in an oath He that we swear by must know the heart whether we speak true or no now who knowes the heart but God therefore we must sweare only by the Name of God These things are easie therefore I do but name them We see here again the two grand parts of an oath besides assertion or promise of the truth there must be a calling God to witnesse and imprecation Though these be not alwaies set down they are implied Sometimes the Scripture sets down the one part but alwaies the other is implied There is imprecation in every oath Sometimes imprecation implies both as God do so and so sometimes there is a calling God to witnesse without imprecation yet it is alwaies implied For whosoever swears calls God to witnesse of the truth and if it be not true that God would punish him These three go together in an oath God that can discover it he knowes my heart whether I say true or no. And he is Judge and thereupon a revenger In an oath God is considered not only as Index but as Judex and Vindex not only as a discoverer but as a Judge and revengeri f it be false Therefore it is a part of divine worship because it is with prayer and imprecation is alway implied if it be not expressed So we see in this text what an oath is and by whom it is to be taken and the parts of it Again we see here in the text that an oath ought to be taken in serious matters The rule of an oath is excellently set down by Jeremy Jerem. 4. I know no one place of Scripture more pregnant and therefore I name it Thou shalt swear How The Lord liveth in truth in judgment and in righteousnesse We must swear in truth that is that not onely the thing be true that we swear we must look to that but we must think it so too the thing must be true and we must apprehend it so We must swear in truth And then in Judgment that is with discretion we must understand throughly the matter whereof we swear and what an oath is Therefore persons under years ought not to take an oath because they cannot swear in Judgment to know what the weight and validity of an oath is and when it is a fit time to take it it must be taken in serious businesse As S. Paul here to clear himself to the soules of the Corinthians whom he laboured to edifie when he saw their ill conceit of him hindred their edification therefore he clears himself by an oath Thirdly it must be in Justice that is we must not bind our selves by an oath to any thing that is ill it is a rule a long time past Herod bound himself by an oath in that kind But an oath must never be a bond of injustice but it must be taken in righteousnesse Therefore here is condemned the equivocation and reservation of the Papists They will swear before a Magistrate but with equivocation this is not in righteousnesse For it is a rule that an oath must be taken in that sense as he to whom we swear takes it that is a constant rule among all Divines because it is to perswade him of the truth that we swear it is for his and others sakes and as he and others take it so it must be took Therefore equivocation with absurd reservations are wicked because they are absurd if they be exprest he will swear that he is not a Priest he means after the order of Melchizedeck it is a mocking and prophaning of an oath it is not to swear in Justice and righteousnesse But it is so foul and abominable a course that it is not fit to be spoken of almost and they are ashamed of it themselves S. Paul's oath was all this he sware in truth he was truly perswaded of the truth of his own affections toward them And then in Judgment it was done in discretion for being not able otherwise to clear himself having no witnesse in earth he goes to heaven for a purger he goes to God himself for a witnesse he fetcheth strength from heaven There was none on earth that knew S. Paul's affection but the Spirit of God and his own spirit and he thought his own spirit was not sufficient my own spirit tells me that I came not to spare you but if you would know my mind better 〈◊〉 all God to witnesse and to be a revenger if I speak false that I came not for this end that I might spare you to prevent the rigour and
part of happinesse in this world and in the world to come Now the end of the Ministery is to set the peoples hearts into a gracious and blessed liberty to bring them into the Kingdome of grace here and to fit them for the Kingdome of glory to help forward their joy This is the end both of the Word and of the dispensation of the Word in the Ordinances of salvation in the Sacraments and all that our joy may be full as our blessed Saviour saith These things have I spoken that your joy may be full It is the end of all our communion with the Father Son and Holy Ghost and with the Ministery and one with another as it is 1 Joh. 1. These things have I written that your joy may be full you have communion with the Father Son and Holy Ghost and with us that your joy may be full all is for spiritual joy We are helpers of your joy The meaning is we are helpers of your faith from whence joy comes more especially for he doth not repeat the word again We have not dominion over your faith but are helpers of your faith but instead of that he names joy as that that doth accompany true faith The Points considerable in this clause are these That joy is the state of Christians that either they are in or should labour to be in because the Apostle names it for all happinesse here All that have given their names to Christ should labour to rejoyce either they do rejoyce or they should labour to come to it that is supposed as a ground I will be the shorter in it The second is That the Ministers are helpers of this blessed condition The third is They are but helpers they are helpers and but helpers they are not authours of joy but helpers We are but helpers of your joy saith the Apostle These three things I will speak of briefly out of these words First Joy is that frame and state of soul that all that have given their names to Christ either are in or should labour to be in For this Doctrine is fetched from the principle of nature We do all with joy all in our callings is done with joy What do men in their Trades but that they may have that that they may joy in when they have it It is an old Observation of S. Chrysostome We do all that we may joy Ask any man why he doth take so much pains and be a drudge in his place it is that he may get somewhat to rejoyce in in his old dayes So out of the principle of nature this ought to be the scope of all to joy Now those that are Christians God requires it at their hand as a duty Rejoyce alway again I say rejoyce And he doth prepare and give them matter enough of joy to those that are Christians For whether we consider the ills they are freed from the greatest ills of all they are freed from sin and the wrath of God they are freed from eternal damnation they are freed from the sting of death from the greatest and most terrible ills Or whether we regard the state that God brings them in by believing being in the favour of God they enjoy the fruits of that favour peace and joy in the Holy Ghost And then for the life to come they are under the hope of glory The state of a Christian is a state of joy every way whether I say we regard the ill he is freed from or the good he is in for the present or the hope of eternal good for the time to come A Christian which way soever he look hath matter of joy God the Father is his Christ is his the Holy Ghost is his Comforter the Angels are his all are his life or death things present or things to come all are his Therefore there is no question of this that every one that hath given his name to Christ is in a state of joy if he answer his calling or he should labour to be in it he wrongs his codition else Why should they labour to be in that state Among many Reasons one is That God that gives them such matter of joy may have glory from them For what should the life of a Christian be that is freed from the greatest ill and advanced to the greatest good his life should be a perpetual thanksgiving to God and how can a man be thankfull that is not joyful Joy is as it were the oyl the anointing it makes a man chearful it makes the countenance of his soul to be chearful it makes him active in good when he is anointed with the oyl of gladnesse Now every man should have a desire to be good to be diligent and expedite in all that is good Therefore we should labour for this spiritual anointing that we may be ready for every good work Vessels of mercy prepared for every good work And then for suffering we have many things to go through in this world how shall a man suffer those things that are between him and Heaven with joy unlesse he labour to bring himself to this temper of joy And then for others every man should labour to encourage others We are all fellow-passengers in the way to Heaven therefore even to bring on others more chearfully we ought to labour to be in a state of joy Those that do not rejoyce they bring an ill report upon the way of God as if it were a desolate disconsolate way As the Spies brought an ill report upon the Land of Canaan whereupon the people were disheartned from entring into it So those that labour not to bring their hearts to spiritual joy they bring an ill report on the wayes of God and dishearten others from entring into those wayes which way soever we look we have reasons to encourage us to joy That God may have more glory and that we may do him more service that we may endure afflictions better and encourage others and take away the reproach of Religion from those that think it a melancholy course of life which indeed do not understand what belongs to the state of a Christian for the state of a Christian is a state of joy And if a Christian do not joy it is not because he is a Christian but because he is not a Christian enough because he favours the worse principle in him he favours himself in some work of the flesh God in the Covenant of grace is all love and mercy he would have us in our pilgrimage to heaven to finish our course with joy and he knowes we can do nothing except we have some joy It is the oyl of the soul as I said to make it nimble and fit for all actions and for all sufferings It gives a lustre and grace to whatsoever we do Not onely God loves a chearfull performer of duties but it wins acceptance of all others and makes the worker himself wondrous
and but helpers They do but utter and propound matter of joy grounds of joy from the Word of God but it is the Spirit of God that doth rejoyce the heart The fruit of the lips is peace it is true but it is when the Spirit of God speaks peace to the soul together with the lips God creates the fruit of the lips to be peace saith Esay The fruit of the lips is peace bâ—… God creates it to be so so the Ministers are comforters but God saith I even I am thy comforter We speak matters of comfort and grounds of comfort but God seals them to the heart by his holy Spirit God is the comforter himself He is the Father of comfort and the God of all consolation And the Spirit is called the comforter to shew unto us that however in the Ordinances the materials of comfort be set abroach to Gods people yet notwithstanding that that that speaks peace to the heart and sets on those comforts to the soul and conscience it is the Spirit of God God himself So there is the outward preaching and the spiritual preaching He hath his chair in heaven that teacheth the heart as S. Austin saith S. Paul speaks but God opens the heart of Lydia he hath the Key to open the heart Therefore you have all attributed to the Spirit of God In Joh. 16. I go hence but I will send you the comforter the Holy Ghost and what shall the Comforter do he shall convince the world of sin of righteousnesse and judgment Do not pretend therefore your own inability that you are unable to comfort or to cast down or to seal unto people their righteousnesse do you that that is your duty propound grounds of direction and casting down and of righteousnesse and of judgment of holy life after and then the Holy Ghost shall go with you the Comforter shall do this to the hearts of people the Holy Ghost shall convince What is Paul or what is Apollo but Ministers Paul may plant and Apollo may water but if God give not the increase what is all Therefore Christ promiseth his disciples that the Holy Ghost should accompany their teaching They might have objected Alas we shall teach the world that they are Gentiles that they are obstinate persons hardened in superstition Do not fear saith he I will send the Holy Ghost he shall fall upon you and furnish you Now when the Holy Ghost was in them and the Holy Ghost in their auditors too together with the Word inspired by the Holy Ghost when the Spirit meetes in these three there are wonders wrought When the Spirit of God is in the teacher and the Spirit of God in the hearers and the Spirit of God in the Word I say when there is one Spirit in the teacher and in the hearers and in the Word there are wonders wrought of conversion and comfort It is the Spirit that must do all we are nothing but Ministers Let a man conceive of us as Ministers and dispensers of the Gospel Ministers of comfort we are and but Ministers just so we are helpers of your joy but we are but helpers Those that account us not helpers of joy know not our calling and those that account us more that we are able to comfort people by the Word they turn the preaching of the Word to magick to a charm We can speak the Word but God must speak to the heart at the same time As it is with Physical water there is the water and there are many strong things in it What doth the water cure or purge it is a dead thing it hath no efficatious quality but to cool c. Whence comes the efficacy There are some cool herbs some strong things in it and then it doth wonders So what is the infusion of the Word but water but aqua vitae water of life the dew of heaven Rosa solis whence is it so as water no but there is a Divine influence and vigour in it that refresheth and quickeneth the soul. It doth not do it of it self but it hath a Divine influence of the Spirit So we see though Ministâ—…s be helpers of joy they are but helpers they are but the conduits that convey that that comes from the Spirit of God they are instruments of the Spirit You see it clear then that God only speaks comfort because the Spirit of God only knowes our spirits throughly The spirit of God can only comfort because he knowes all the discomforts of our hearts he knowes all our griefs all the corners of our hearts that the Minister cannot do The Minister may speak general comforts but the Spirit of God knowes all the windings and turnings of the heart and all the disconsolate pangs of the heart and soul every little pang and grief the Spirit of God knowes it Therefore the Spirit of God is the Comforter he strikes the nail and seales the comfort to the soul we are but helpers Then again the Spirit of God must do it because the soul must be set down with that that is stronger then it self it must be so convinced and set down that it must have more to say against the griefe or temptation then can be alledged by the Devil himself The soul before it be comforted it must be quieted and stilled Now who is above the soul and Satan that tempts the soul Let Satan be let loose to tempt the soul and the soul hath a hell in it self if God let it alone who is above those unspeakable torments of coascience if they be not allayed by the Spirit of God Who is above the soul but the Spirit of God will the soul allay it self no it will never Therefore the Spirit of God that is stronger and wiser then the soul and is the Spirit of light and strength it must set down and quiet and calm the soul that it hath nothing to say against the comfort it brings but quiets it self and saith I must rest I must see this is from heaven I am quiet This the Spirit doth Therefore make this Use of it that in all our endeavours to procure peace to our consciences and spiritual balm to the wounds of our soules let us go to this heavenly Physician not depend over-much upon the Ministery or reading or any outward task but in the use of all things lift up our hearts to God that he would comfort us by his Spirit that he would send the Comforter into our soules Though the disciples had comfort upon comfort by Christ yet till the Comforter came whose office it was to do it to seal his Word to their soules alas they were dead-hearted people but after the resurrection when the Comforter came and refreshed their memories and convinced their understandigs then they could remember all the sweet comforts that our blessed Saviour had taught them before So it is with us we hear many sweet comforts day after day out of Gods
19. It put his soul out of taste with all other things This joy of the Spirit it puts such a relish in the soul that it makes it undervalue all other things whatsoever the price of other things falls down when a man joyes in the Holy Ghost because it ariseth from the grounds of faith from peace and righteousnesse And likewise if it look forward from the hope of life everlasting and the favour of God the ground of all It riseth from things that are above all other contentments The loving kindnesse of the Lord that faith apprehends that is the ground of joy it is above life it self Now life is the sweetest thing upon earth but the loving kindnesse of God is better then that Therefore those that lose their soules in base contentments and joy in the dirty things of this life that are not fit for the soul to fasten on to place contentment in but are only to be used as those that take a journey to refresh them but those that are swallowed up in these things they know not what spiritual joy is that ariseth from the Word of God from divine truth that ariseth from faith for if they did this joy would raise them higher above all earthly contentments whatsoever Then again where this joy is this spiritual enlargement of soul which is called joy it is from true grounds it is with humility For the same Word that discovers matter of joy discovers matter of humility and grief in our selves by reason of the remainders of sin and of our own deservings So true joy it is a tempered and qualified joy it is not joyned with pride and swelling because it riseth from those grounds that teach us what we are in our selves alas such that we need not be proud in our selves but if we will glory we must glory in God Well it is not that that I mean principally to stand on but only I speak of it because it is placed here for faith as it springs from faith we are helpers of your joy To hasten then to that that followes For by faith ye stand This principally depends upon the first words We have not dominion over your faith because faith is such a grace as you stand by in all conditions Now what you stand by must be firm it must be on a good bottome and what is firm must not be humane but divine therefore we have no dominion over your faith for by faith ye stand Standing is a military word by faith ye stand that is first of all faith gives a standing a certain standing before any conflict it gives a standing in Christianity it sets the soul in a frame in a standing Nay faith helps us we stand by faith not only in a frame of Christianity and furnished with spiritual strength but then we are fit to encounter opposition by faith we stand to it and stand against all opposition we stand and stand to it by faith And standing likewise implies continuance in managing Christianity and opposing all enemies whatsoever by faith we stand and continue standing we hold out in all opposition Standing likewise in the next place implies a kind of safety together with victory at length By faith ye stand you stand so as you are not wounded to death you stand so as you are kept safe especially from mortal wounds and altogether safe so far as you use faith as a shield till you have got perfect victory and faith end in triumph So faith is that grace whereby we stand whereby we are in a frame of Religion fit to stand and whereby we so standiug encouter oppositions and continue so encountering and preserve our selves safe till victory be obtained this is the full expression and comprehension of the word By faith ye stand Now why is it by faith that we have this standing Because faith it is that grace in the new Covenant that makes the soul go out of it self it empties the soul of all things in it self and goes out to somewhat else whereupon it stands For in the new Covenant since Adams fall all our strength is in the second Adam our head we fetch it there And faith is the hand of the soul. Now because faith in the new Covenant is an emptying grace and likewise because as it is a grace that empties the soul so it fastens upon another thing whereupon it relies for faith is an uniting grace as well as an emptying grace now faith emptying and uniting so it makes us stand And likewise faith as it drawes it hath a drawing vertue an attractive force it is a radical grace it is like a root when it knits to Christ it sucks out and drawes vertue from him every touch of faith drawes spiritual strength and vertue so it causeth us to stand by the attractive vertue it hath And then it is the force of faith likewise to make things present For therein it differs from hope hope looks upon things as absent now the things that hope looks on as things remote and distant in time and place faith makes them present therefore it is said to be the evidence of things not seen Now that that makes the soul to be strong and able to stand it must be somewhat present however the full possession of things be reserved not for faith but for vision for comprehenders in heaven where faith ends and determines yet notwithstanding faith drawes so much for the present it sets things to come so far present with such evidence and force as it upholds the soul and makes it stand It is the evidence of things not seen And thereupon it hath a kind of omnipotent power to make things that are not to be Heaven and glory and happinesse they are not for the pesent but faith looking on them in the authority of God and the divine promises faith makes them present by a kind of almighty power that it hath laying hold on an almighty power and hereupon it upholds the soul it is the prop and stay of the soul as in Heb. 11. it signifies to stay up to hold up as a pillar even from this vertue it hath to make things to come present You see then what it is to stand and how faith is fitted for this purpose because as I said it is the grace of the new Covenant emptying us and drawing us to Christ from whom we draw all vertue and because it makes things to come as present By faith wr are set in a right frame and condition again as by want of faith we fell The same grace must set us right for want of which we fell How came we to fall at the first You know Adam hearkened to his wife Eve and she hearkened to the Serpent they trusted not in God they began to stagger at the promises to stagger at the Word of God Satan robbed them of the Word He observes and continues the same Art still to take the Word from us and to