that needs be to have a soul sharp set even to a ravenous hunger after sin but chain'd up where it can come at nothing it would have to satisfie its lost for a proud wretch that could wish he might dominere over all the world yea over God himself if he would let him to be kept down in such a dungeon as hell is O how it will cut for the malicious sinner whose heart swells with rancour against God and his Saints that he could pluck them out of Gods bosome yea God out of his throne if he had power to finde his hands so manacled that he can do nothing against them he so hates O how this will torment Speak O you Saints whose partial victory over sin at present is so sweet to you that you would choose a thousand deaths sooner then return to your old bondage under your lusts how glorious then is that day in your eye when this shall be compleated in a full and eternal Conquest never to have any thing to do more with sin or Satan Secondly to stand is here to stand justified and acquitted at the great day of judgement The phrase is frequent in Scripture which sets out the solemn discharge they shall have then by standing in judgement Psal 1.5 The wicked shall not stand in the judgement that is they shall not be justified Psal 130.3 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand that is who shall be discharged The great God upon whose errand we come into the world hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by Jesus Christ a solemn day it will be when all that ever lived on earth high and low good and bad shall meet in one Assembly to make their personal appearance before Christ and from his mouth to receive their eternal doom who shall in his Majestick robes of glory ascend the awful seat of Judicature attended with his illustrious traine and guard of Angels about him as so many officers ready to execute and perform his pleasure according to the definitive sentence that he shall pronounce either to conduct those blessed ones whom he shall justifie into his glorious Kingdome or binde them hand and foot to be cast into hells unquenchable flames whom he shall condemn I do not wonder that Pauls Sermon on this subject did make an earth-quake in Felix his conscience but rather that any should be so far gone in a lethargy and dedolent numbnesse of conscience as the thought of this day cannot recover them to their sense and feeling O Sirs do you not vote them happy men and women that shall speed well on this day are not your thoughts enquiring who those blessed soules are which shall be acquitted by the lively voice of Christ the Judge You need not ascend to search the rolls of election in heaven here you may know they are such as fight the Lords battels on earth against Satan in the Lords Armour and that to the end of their lives These having done all shall stand in judgement And were it but at a mans bar some Court-Martial where a souldier stood upon trial for his life either to be condemned as a Traitour to his Prince or clear'd as faithful in his trust O how such a one would listen to heare how it would go with him and be overjoyed when the Judge pronounces him innocent Well may such be bid to fall down on their knees thank God and the Judge that have saved their lives how much more ravishing will the sweet voice of Christ be in the Saints eares when he shall in the face of men and Angels make publike declaration of their righteousnesse O how confounded will Satan then be who was their accuser to God and their own consciences also ever threatening them with the terrour of that day How blank will the wicked world be to see the dirt that they had throwen by their calumnies and lying reports on the Saints faces wiped off with Christs own hand they from Christs mouth to be justified as sincere whom they had call'd hypocrites will not this O ye Saints be enough for all the scorne you were laden with from the world and conflict you endured with the Prince of the world But this is not all Therefore Thirdly to stand doth here also as the complement of their reward denote the Saints standing in heavens glory Princes when they would reward any of their subjects that in their wars have done eminent service to the crown as the utmost they can do for them do prefer them to Court there to enjoy their Princely favour and stand in some place of honourable service before them continually Solomon sets it out as the greatest reward of faithful subjects to stand before Kings Heaven is the royal city where the great God keeps his Court. The happiness of glorious Angels is to stand there before God I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God Luke 1.19 That is I am one of those heavenly spirits who wait on the great God and stand before his face as Courtiers do about their Prince Now such honour shall every faithful soul have Thus saith the Lord of hostes If thou wilt walk in my wayes and if thou wilt keep my charge I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by Zech. 3.7 He alludes to the Temple which had rooms joyning to it for the Priests that waited on the Lord in his holy service there Or to Courtiers that have stately galleries and lodgings becoming their place at Court allowed them in the Kings Palace they wait upon Thus all the Saints whose representative Joshua was shall after they have kept the Lords charge in a short lifes service on earth be called up to stand before God in heaven where with Angels they shall have their galleries and mansions of glory also O happy they who shall stand before the Lord in glory The greatest Peeres of a Realme such as Earles Marquesses and Dukes are count it greater honour to stand before their King though bare-headed and oft upon the knee then to live in the countrey where all bow and stand bare to them yea let but their Prince forbid them coming to Court and 't is not their great estates or respect they have where they live will content them 'T is better to wait in heaven then to reign on earth 'T is sweet standing before the Lord here in an Ordinance one day in the worship of God is better then many elsewhere O what then is it to stand before God in glory If the Saints spikenard sendeth forth so sweet a smell while the King sits at his table here in a Sermon or Sacrament O then what joy must needs flow from their near attendance on him as he sits at his table in heaven which when God first made it was intended by him to be that Chamber of presence in which he would present himself to be seen of and enjoyed by his Saints in
booty at the sacking of some town are spoil'd for fighting ever after CHAP. II. Of the Saints strength where it lies and wherefore laid up in God THe second Branch of the words followeth which contains a cautionary direction Having exhorted the Saints at Ephesus and in them all believers to a holy resolution and courage in their warfare lest this should be mistaken and beget in them an opinion of their own strength for the battel the Apostle leads them out of themselves for this strength even to the Lord Be strong in the Lord. From whence observe That the Christians strength lies in the Lord not in himself The strength of the General in other hostes lies in his troops he flâ—es as a great Commander once said to his souldiers upon their wings if their feathers be clipt their power broken he is lost but in the Army of Saints the strength of every Saint yea of the whole hoste of Saints lies in the Lord of hostes God can overcome his enemies without their hands but they cannot so much as defend themselves without his arme It is one of Gods names The strength of Israel 1 Sam. 15.19 He was the strength of Davids heart without him this valiant Worthy that could when held up in his armes defie him that defied an whole Army behaves himself strangely for feare at a word or two that drop't from the Philistines mouth He was the strength of his hands He taught his fingers to fight and so he is the strength of all his Saints in their war against sin and Satan Some propound a question whether there be a sin committed in the world in which Satan hath not a part but if the question were whether there be any holy action performed without the special assistance of God concurring that is resolved John 15.5 Without me you can do nothing Thinking strength of God 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God We Apostles we Saints that have habitual grace yet this lies like water at the bottome of a Well which will not ascend with all our pumping till God poure in his exciting grace and then it comes To will is more then to think to exert our will into action more then both these are of God Phil. 2.13 It is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure He makes the heart new and having made it fit for heavenly motion setting every wheele as it were in its right place then he windes it up by his actuating grace and sets it on going the thoughts to stir the will to move and make towards the holy object presented yet here the chariot is set and cannot ascend the hill of action till God puts his shoulder to the wheele Rom. 7. To will is present with me but how to performe that which is good I finde not God is at the bottome of the ladder and at the top also the Author and Finisher yea helping and lifting the soule at every round in his ascent to any holy action Well now the Christian is set on work how long will he keep close to it Alas poor soul no longer then he is held up by the same hand that impowered him at first He hath soon wrought out the strength received and therefore to maintain the tenure of a holy course there must be renewing strength from heaven every moment which David knew and therefore when his heart was in as holy a frame as ever he felt it and his people by their free-will-offering declared the same yet even then he prayes that God would keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of his people and establish their hearts to him 1 Chron. 29.18 He adored the mercy that made them willing and then he implores his further grace to strengthen them and tie a knot that these precious pearles newly strung on their hearts might not slip off The Christian when fullest of divine communications is buâ— a glasse without a foot he cannot stand or hold what he hath received any longer then God holds him in his strong hand Therefore Christ when bound for heaven and ready to take his leave of his children bespeaks his Fathers care of them in his absence Father keep them as if he had said they must not be left alone they are poor shiftlesse children that can neither stand nor go without help they will lose the grace I have given them and fall into those temptations which I kept them from while I was with them if they be out of thy eye or armes but one moment and therefore Father keep them Again Consider the Christian as addressing himself to any duty of Gods worship still his strength is in the Lord Would he pray where will he finde materials for his prayer alas he knows not what to pray for as he ought Let him alone and he will soon pray himself into some temptation or other and cry for that which were cruelty in God to give and therefore God puts words in our mouthes Take words with you and say Hos 14.2 Well now he hath words put into his mouth alas they will freeze in his very lips if he hath not some heart-heating affections to thaw the tap and where shall this fire be had not a spark to be found on his own hearth except it be some strange fire of natural desires which will not serve whence then must the fire come to thaw the icenesse of the heart but from heaven The Spirit he must stretch himself upon the soul as the Prophet on the childe and then the soule will come to some kindly warmth and heavenly heat in his affections the Spirit must groane and then the soul will groane he helps us to these sighs and groans which turne the sailes of prayer He dissolves the heart and then it bursts out of the heart by groans of the lips by heavenly Rhethorick out of the eyes as from a flood-gate with teares yet further now the creature is enabled to wrestle with God in prayer what will he get by all this suppose he be weak in grace is he able to pray himself strong or corruption weak no this is not to be found in prayer as an act of the creature this drops from heaven also In the day that I cried thou answeredst me and gavest me strength in my soul David received it in duty but had it not from his duty but from his God He did not pray himself strong but God strengthened him in his prayer Well cast your eye once more upon the Christian as engaging in another Ordinance of hearing the Word preach't The soules strength to heare the Word is from God he opens the heart to attend yea he opens the understanding of the Saint to receive the Word so as to conceive what it meant It is like Samsons riddle which we cannot unfold without
if he cannot trip up so as to hinder his arrival in heaven yet at least to bruise it that he may go with more pain thither CHAP. II. Satans subtilty in managing his temptations where several stratagems used by him to deceive the Christian are laid down THe second way wherein Satan shews his tempting subtilty is in those stratagems he useth to deceive the Christian in the act of temptation First he hangs out false colours and comes up to the Christian in the disguise of a friend so that the gates are opened to him and his motions received with applause before either be discovered therfore he is said to transform himself into an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.14 Of all plots 't is most dangerous when he appears in Samuels mantle and silvers his foul tongue with faire language Thus in point of errour he corrupts some in their judgements by commending his notions for precious Gospel-truths and like a cunning Chapman puts off his old ware errours I mean that have layen long upon his hand only turkening them a little after the mode of the times and they go for new light under the skirt of Christian liberty he conveys in Libertinisme by crying up the Spirit he decries and vilifies the Scripture by magnifying faith he labours to undermine repentance and blow up good works by bewailing the corruption of the Church in its administrations he drawes unstable souls from it and amuseth them till at last they fall into a vertigo and can see no Church at all in being And he prevails no lesse on the hearts and lives of men by this wile then on their judgements Under the notion of zeal he kindles sometimes a dangerous flame of passion and wrath in the heart which like a rash fire makes the Christians spirit boile over into unchristian desires of and prayers for revenge where he should forgive of which we have an instance in the disciples Luke 9.55 where two holy men are desiring that fire may come down from heaven Little did they think from whence they had their coal that did so heat them till Christ told them Ye know not what Spirit you are of Sometimes he pretends pity and natural affection which in some cases may be good counsel and all the while he desires to promote cowardise and sinful self-love whereby the Christian may be brought to flie from his colours shrink from the truth or decline some necessary duty of his calling this his wile Christ soon spied when he got Peter to be his spokesman saying Master pity thy self who stop't his mouth with that sharp rebuke Get thee behinde me Satan O what need have we to study the Scriptures our hearts and Satans wiles that we may not bid this enemy welcome and all the while think it's Christ that is our guest A second policie he useth is to get intelligence of the Saints affairs This is one great wheele in the Politicians clock to have Spies in all places by whom they are acquainted with the counsels and motions of their enemies and this gives them advantage as to disappoint their designes so more safely to compasse their own 'T is no hard matter for him to play his game well that sees his enemies hand David knew how the squares went at Court Jonathans arrowes carried him the newes and accordingly he removed his quarters and was too hard for his great enemy Saul Satan is the greatest Intelligencer in the world he makes it his businesse to enquire into the inclinations thoughts affections purposes of the creature that finding which humour abounds he may apply himself accordingly which way the stream goes that he may open the passage of temptation and cut the channel to the fall of the creatures affections and not force it against the torrent of nature Now if we consider but the piercing apprehension of the Angelical nature how quick he is to take the sent which way the game goes by a word drop't the cast of an eye or such a small matter signal enough to give him the alarm his experience in heart-anatomy having inspected and as it were dissected so many in his long practice whereby his knowledge is much perfected as also his great diligence to adde to both these being as close a Student as ever considering the Saints and studying how he may do them a mischief as we see in Jobs case whom he had so observed that he was able to give an answer ex tempore to God what Jobs state and present posture was and what might be the most probable means of obtaining his will of him and besides all this the correspondence that he hath with those in and about the Christian from whom he learnes much of his state as David by Hushai in Absaloms counsel all these considered 't is almost impossible for the creature to stir out of the closet of his heart but it will be known whither he enclines some corrupt passion or other will bewray the soule to him as they did David to Saul who told him where he might finde him in the wildernesse of Engedi Thus will these give intelligence to Satan and say If thou wouldest surprize such a one he is gone that way you shall have him in the wood of worldly employments over head and eares in the desires and cares of this life see where another sits under such a bower delighting himself in this childe or that gift endowment of mind or the like lay but the lime-twig there and you shall soon have him in it Now Satan having this intelligence lets him alone to act his part he sure cannot be at a losse himself when his scholars the Jesuites I mean have such agility of minde to wreath and cast themselves into any forme becoming the persons they would seduce Is ambition the lust the heart favours O the pleasing projects that he will put such upon how easily having first blown them up with vain hopes doth he draw them into horrid sins Thus Human that he may have a monopoly of his Princes favour is hurried into that bloody plot fatal at last to himself against the Jewes Is uncleannesse the lust after which the creatures eye wanders Now he 'll be the Pander to bring him and his Minion together Thus he finding Amnon sick of this disease sends Jonadah a deep-pated fellow to put this fine device into his head of feigning himself sick whereby his Sister fell into his snare Thirdly in his gradual approaches to the soul When he comes to tempt he is modest asks but a little he knows he may get that at many times which he should be denied if lie ask't all at once A few are let into a city when an army coming in a body would be shut out and therefore that he may beget no suspition he presents may be a few general propositions which do not discover the depth of his plot these like Scouts goe before while his whole body lies hid as it were in
people stand gazing as those who have lost the sight of their Preacher and at the end of the Sermon cannot tell what he would have Or those who preach only truths that are for the higher forme of Professours who have their senses well exercised excellent may be for the building up three or foure eminent Saints in the Congregation but in the mean time the weak ones in the family who should indeed chiefly be thought on because least able to guide themselves or carve for themselves these are forgotten He sure is an unwise builder that makes a Scaffold as high as Pauls steeple when his work is at the bottom and he is to lay the foundation whereas the Scaffold should rise as the building goes up So Paul advanceth in his doctrine as his hearers do in knowledge Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection Let us It is well indeed when the people can keep pace with the Preacher To preach truths and notions above the hearers capacity is like a Nurse that should go to feed the childe with a spoon too big to go into its mouth We may by such preaching please our selves and some of higher attainments but what shall poor ignorant ones do in the mean time He is the faithful steward that considers both The Preacher is as Paul saith of himself a debt or both to the Greek and to the Barbarian to the wise and to the unwise Rom. 1.14 to prepare truths suitable to the degree of his hearers Let the wise have their portion but let them be patient to see the weaker in the family served also Fourthly a Minister may be accessary to the ignorance of his people when through the scandal of his life he prejudiced his doctrine as a Cook who by his nastiness makes others afraid to eat what comes out of his foule fingers Or when through his supercilious carriage his poor people dare not come to him He that will do any good in the Ministers calling must be as careful as the Fisher that he doth nothing to scare soules away from him but all to allure and invite that they may be toll'd within the compasse of his net Vse 3 Is the ignorant soul such a slave to Satan Let this stirre you up that are ignorant from your seats of sloth whereon like the blinde Egyptians you sit in darknesse speedily come out of this darknesse or resolve to go down to utter darknesse The covering of Hamans face did tell him that he should not stay in the Kings presence If thou livest in ignorance it shews thou art in Gods black bill he puts this cover before their eyes in wrath whom he means to turne off into hell 2 Cor. 4. If our Gospel be hid it is to those that perish In one place sinners are threatened they shall die without knowledge in another place they shall die in their sinnes John 8. He indeed that dies without knowledge dies in his sinnes and what more fearful doome can the great God passe upon a creature then this better die in a prison die in a ditch then die in ones sinnes It thou die in thy sinnes thou shalt rise in thy sinnes as thou fallest asleep in the dust so thou awakest in the morning of the resurrection if an ignorant Christlesse wretch as such thou shalt be araigned and judged That God whom now sinners bid depart from them will then be worth their acquaintance themselves being Judges but alas then he will throw their own words in their teeth and bid them depart from him he desires not the knowledge of them O sinners you shall see at last God can better be without your company in heaven then you could without his knowledge on earth Yet yet 't is day draw your curtains and behold Christ shining upon your face with Gospel-light hear wisdome crying in the streets and Christ piping under your window in the voice of his Spirit and Messengers How long will ye simple ones love simplicity and fools hate knowledge Turne you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you and make known my words unto you What can you say sinners for your sottish ignorance Where is your cloak for this sinne the time hath been when the Word of the Lord was precious and there was no open vision not a Bible to be found in town or Countrey when the tree of knowledge was forbidden fruit and none might taste thereof without licence from the Pope happy he that could get a leaf or two of the Testament into a corner afraid to tell the wife of his bosome O how sweet were these waters when they were forced to steal them but you have the Word or may in your houses you have those that open them every Sabbath in your Assemblies many of you at least have the offers of your Ministers to take any paines with you in private passionately beseeching you to pitie your souls and receive instruction yea 't is the lamentation they generally take up you will not come unto them that you may receive light How long may a poor Minister sit in his study before any of the ignorant sort will come upon such an errand Lawyers have their Clients and Physicians their Patients these are sought after and call'd up at midnight for counsel but alas the soule which is more worth then raiment and body too that is neglected and the Minister seldom thought on till both these be sent away Perhaps when the Physician gives them over for dead then we must come and close up those eyes with comfort which were never opened to see Christ in his truth or be counted cruel because we will not sprinkle them with this holy water and anoint them for the Kingdome of Heaven though they know not a step of the way which leads to it Ah poor wretches what comfort would you have us speak to those to whom God himself speaks terrour Is heaven ours to give to whom we please or is it in our power to alter the lawes of the most High and save those whom he condemns Do you not remember the curse that is to fall upon his head that maketh the blinde to wander out of the way Deut. 27.18 what curse then would be our portion if we should confirm such blinde soules that are quite out of the way to heaven encouraging you to go on and expect to reach heaven at last when God knows your feet stand in those paths that lead to eternal death No 't is written we cannot and God will not reverse it you may reade your very names among those damned soules which Christ comes in flaming fire to take vengeance on who the Apostle tells us are such that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes 1.8 And therefore in the feare of God let this provoke you of what age or sexe rank or condition soever in the world to
Ezek. 36.31 ye shall remember your wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight c. And when shall this be but when God would save them from all their uncleannesses as appears v. 25. yet notwithstanding this there remain such dregs of corruption unpurged out of the best that Satan findes it not impossible to make the manifestations of Gods love an occasion of pride to the Christian and truly God lets us see our pronenesse to this sin in the short stay he makes when he comes with any greater discoveries of his love The Comforter 't is true abides for ever in the Saints bosome but his joyes they come and are gone again quickly They are as exceedings with which he feasts the believer but the cloth is soon drawn and why so but because we cannot bear them for our every day food A short interview of heaven and a vision of love now and then upon the mount of an ordinance or affliction cheeres the spirits of drooping Christians who might they have leave to build Tabernacles there and dwell under a constant shine of such manifestations would be prone to forget themselves and think they were Lords of their own comforts If holy Paul was in danger of falling into this distemper of pride from his short rapture to prevent which God saw it needful to let him blood with a thorne in the flesh would not our blood much more grow too rank and we too crank and wanton if we should feed long on such luscious food And therefore if ever Christian thou hadst need to watch then is the time when comforts abound and God dandles thee most on the knee of his love when his face shines with clearest manifestations lest this sin of pride as a thief in the candle should swaile out thy joy To prevent which thou shouldest do well First to look that thou measurest not thy grace by thy comfort lest so thou beest led into a false opinion that thy grace is strong because thy comforts are so Satan will be ready to help forward such thoughts as a fit medium to life thee up and slacken thy care in duty for the future Such discoveries do indeed bear witnesse to the truth of thy grace but not to the decree and measure of it the weak childe may be yea is oftner in the lap then the strong Secondly do not so much applaud thy self in thy present comfort as labour to improve it for the glory of God Vp and eate saith the Angel to the Prophet because the journey is too great for thee The manifestations of Gods love are to fit us for our work It is one thing to rejoyce in the light of our comfort and another to go forth in the power of the Spirit comforting us as Giants refreshed with this wine to run our race of duty and obedience with more strength and alacrity He shews his pride that spends his time in telling his money meerly to see how rich he is but he his wisdom that layes out his money and trades with it The boaster of his comforts will lose what he hath when he that improves his comforts in a fuller trade of duty shall adde more to what he hath Thirdly remember thou dependest on God for the continuance of thy comfort They are not the smiles thou hadst yesterday can make thee joyous to day any more then the bread thou didst then eate can make thee strong without more thou needest new discoveries for new comforts let God hide his face and thou wilt soon lose the sight and forget the taste of what thou even now hadst It is beyond our skill or power to preserve those impressions of joy and comfortable apprehensions of Gods favour on our spirits which sometimes we finde as Gods presence brings those so when he goes he carries them away with him as the setting-Sun doth the day We would laugh heartily at him who when the Sun shines in at his window should think by shutting that to imprison the Sun-beams in his chamber and doest thou not shew as much folly who thinkest because thou now hast comfort thou therefore shalt never be in darknesse of Spirit more The believers comfort is like Israels Manna 't is not like our ordinary bread and provision we buy at market and lock up in our Cupboards where we can go to it when we will no it is rained as that was from heaven Indeed God provided for them after this sort to humble them Deut. 8.16 Who fed thee in the wildernesse with Manna which thy fathers knew not that he might humble thee It was not because such mean food that God is said to humble them for it was delicious food therefore call'd Angels food Psal 78.25 Such as if Angels did eate might serve them But the manner of the dispensing it from hand to mouth every day their portion and no more so that God kept the key of their Cupboard they stood to his immediate allowance and thus God communicates our spiritual comforts for the same end to humble us So much for this second sort of spiritual wickednesse I had thought to have instanced in some other as hypocrisie unbelief formality but possibly the subject being general what I have already said may be thought but a digression and that too long I shall therefore conclude this branch of spiritual wickednesse in a word to those who are yet in a natural and unsanctified state which is to stir them up from what I have said concerning Satans assaulting beleevers with such temptations to consider seriously how that Satans chief designe against them also lies in the same sins These are the wickednesses he labours to ingulph you in above all others If ever you perish it will be by the hand of these sins 'T is your feared conscience blinde minde and dedolent impenitent heart will be your undoing if you miscarry finally Other sins the devil knowes are preparatory to these and therefore he drawes thee into them to bring thee into these Two wayes they prepare a way to spiritual sins First as they naturally dispose the sinner to them 't is the nature of sin to blinde the minde stupifie the conscience harden the heart as is implied Heb. 3.13 Lest your heart be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sin As the feet of Travellers beat the high way hard so does walking in carnal grosse sins the heart they benumbe the conscience so that in time the sinner loses his feeling and can carry his lusts in his heart as Bedlams their pins in their very flesh without pain and remorse Secondly as they do provoke God by a judiciary act to give them up to these sins Lam. 3.65 Give them obstinacy of heart so 't is in your margin thy curse unto them and when the devil hath got sinners at this passe then he hath them under lock and key They are the fore-runners of damnation if God leave thy heart hard and unbroken
others but most of all themselves such may be the worlds Saints but devils in Christs account Have not I chosen twelve one of you is a devil And truly of all devils none so bad as the professing devil the preaching praying devil O Sirs be plain-hearted Religion is as tender as your eye it will not be jested with Remember the vengeance which fell on Belshazzar while he carowsed in the bowles of the Sanctuary Religion and the duties of it are consecrated things not made for thee to drink thy lusts out of God hath remarkably appeared in discovering and confounding such as have prostituted sacred things to worldly ends Jezabel fasts and prayes the better to devoure Naboths vineyard but was devoured by it Absalom was as sick till he had ravish't his fathers Crown as his brother Amnon till he had done the like to his sister and to hide his treason he puts on a religious cloak and therefore begs leave to go and pay his vow in Hebron when he had another game in chase and did he not fall by the hand of his hypocrisie of all men their judgement is endorst with most speed who silver over worldly or wicked enterprises with heavenly semblances of this gang were those 2 Pet. 2.3 concerning whom the Apostle saith Their damnation slumbers not and those Ezek. 14.7 8. to whom God saith I the Lord will answer him by my selfe and I will set my face against that man and will make him a signe and a Proverb and I will cut him off from the midst of my people and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Vse 2 Secondly try whether they be heavenly things or earthly thou chiefly pursuest certainly friends we need not be so ignorant of our soules state and affairs did we oftner converse with our thoughts and observe the haunts of our hearts we soon can tell what dish pleaseth our palate best and may you not tell whether heaven or earth be the most savoury meat to your souls and if you should ask how you might know whether heaven be the prize you chiefly desire I would put you only upon this double trial First art thou uniforme in thy pursuit Doest thou contend for heaven and that which leads to heaven also Earthly things God is pleased to retaile all have some none have all but in heavenly treasure he will not break the whole piece and cut it into remnants If thou wilt have heaven thou must have Christ if Christ thou must like his service as well as his sacrifice no holinesse no happinesse If God would cut off so much as would serve mens turnes he might have customers enough Balaam himself likes one end of the piece he would die like a righteous man though live like a wizzard as he was no God will not deal with such pedling Merchants that man alone is for God and God for him who will come roundly up to Gods offer and take all off his hands One fitly compares holinesse and happinesse to those two sisters Leah and Rachel Happinesse like Rachel seems the fairer even a carnal heart may fall in love with that but holinesse like Leah is the elder and beautiful also though in this life it appears with some disadvantage her eyes being blear'd with teares of repentance and her face furrowed with the works of mortification but this is the Law of that heavenly countrey that the younger Sister must not be bestowed before the elder We cannot enjoy faire Rachel Heaven and Happinesse except first we embrace tender-eyed Leah Holinesse with all her severe duties of repentance and mortification Now Sirs how like you this method Art thou content to marry Christ and his grace and then serving a hard Apprenticeship in temptations both of prosperity and adversity enduring the heat of the one and the cold of the other to wait till at last the other be given into thy bosome Secondly if indeed heaven and heavenly things be the prize thou wrestlest for thou wilt discover a heavenly deportment of heart even in earthly things whereever you meet a Christian he is going to Heaven Heaven is at the bottome of his lowest actions Now observe thy heart in three particulars In getting in using and in keeping earthly things whether it be after a heavenly manner First In getting earthly things If Heaven be thy chief prize then thou wilt be ruled by a heavenly Law in the gathering of these Take a carnal wretch and what his heart is set on he will have though it be by hook or crook A lie fits Gehazi's mouth well enough so he may fill his pockets by it Jezabel dares mock God and murder an innocent man for an acre or two of ground Absalom regnandi causâ what will he not do Gods fence is too low to keep a gracelesse heart in bounds when the game is before him but a soule that hath heaven in its eye is ruled by heavens law he dares not step out of heavens road to take up a crown as we see in Davids carriage towards Saul Indeed in so doing he should crosse himself in his own grand design which is the glory of God and the happinesse of his own soul in enjoying of him upon these very termes the servants of God have refused to be rich and great in the world when either of these lay at stake Moses threw his Court-preferment at his heels refusing to be call'd the son of Pharaohs daughter Abraham scorned to be made rich by the King of Sodom Gen. 14.22 that he might avoid the suspicion of covetousnesse and self-seeking it shall not be said another day that he came to enrich himself with the spoil more then to rescue his kinsmen Nehemiah would not take the taxe and tribute to maintain his state when he knew they were a poor peeled people because of the fear of the Lord. Doest thou walk by this rule wouldest thou gather no more estate or honour then thou mayest have with Gods leave and will stand with thy hopes of heaven Secondly doest thou discover a heavenly Spirit in using these things First the Saint improves his earthly things for an heavenly end where layest thou up thy treasure doest thou bestow it on thy voluptuous paunch thy hawks and thy hounds or lockest thou it up in the bosome of Christs poor members what use makest thou of thy honour and greatnesse to strengthen the hands of the godly or the wicked and so of all thy other temporal enjoyments A gracious heart improves them for God when a Saint prayes for these things he hath an eye to some heavenly end If David prayes for life it is not that he may live but live and praise God Psal 119 175. When he was driven from his regal throne by the rebellious armes of Absalom see what his desire was and hope 2 Sam. 15.25 The King said to Zadock Carry back the Ark of God into the City if I shall-finde favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring
me again and shew me both it and his habitation Mark not shew me my Crown my Palace but the Ark the House of God Secondly a gracious heart pursues earthly things with a holy indifferency saving the violence and zeal of his spirit for the things of heaven he useth the former as if he used them not with a kinde of non-attendency his head and heart is taken up with higher matters how he may please God thrive in his grace enjoy more intimate communion with Christ in his Ordinances in these he spreads all his sailes plyes all his oares strains every part and power thus we finde David upon his full speed My soul presseth hard after thee Psal 63. And before the Ark we finde him dancing with all his might Now a carnal heart is clean contrary his zeal is for the world and his indifferency in the things of God he prays as if he did not pray c. he sweats in his shop but chills and growes cold in his closet O how hard to pully him up to a duty of Gods worship or to get him out to an Ordinance No weather shall keep him from the market raine blow or snow he goes thither but if the Church-path be a little wet or the aire somewhat cold 't is apology enough for him if his pue be empty when he is about any worldly businesse he is as earnest at it as the idolatrous Smith in hammering of his image who the Prophet saith worketh it with the strength of his armes yea he is hungry and his strength faileth he drinketh not and is faint Isa 44.12 so zealous is the muck-worme in his worldly employments that he will pinch his carcase and deny himself his repast in due season to pursue that The Kitchin there shall wait on the shop But in the worship of God 't is enough to make him sick of the Sermon and angry with the Preacher if he be kept beyond his houre here the Sermon must give place to the Kitchin so the man for his pleasures and carnal pastime he tells no clock at his sports and knows not how the day goes when night comes he is angry that it takes him off but at any heavenly work O how is the man punish't time now hath got leaden heels he thinks all he does at a Sermon is to tell the clock and see how the glasse runs if men were not willing to deceive themselves surely they might know which way their heart goes by the swift motion or the hard tugging and slow pace it stirs as well as they know in a boat whether they row against the tyde or with it Thirdly the Christian useth these things with a holy feare lest earth should rob heaven and his outward enjoyments prejudice his heavenly interest he eats in feare works in feare rejoyceth in his abundance with feare as Iob sanctified his children by offering a sacrifice out of a feare lest they had sinned so the Christian is continually sanctifying his earthly enjoyments by prayer that so he may be delivered from the snare of them Thirdly the Christian is heavenly in his keeping of earthly things The same heavenly Law which he went by in getting he observes in holding them As he dares not say he will be rich and honourable in the world but if God will so neither that he will hold what he hath he only keeps them while his heavenly Father calls for them that at first gave them If God will continue them to him and entaile them on his posterity too he blesseth God and so he desires to do also when he takes them away Indeed Gods meaning in the great things of this world which sometimes he throwes in upon the Saints is chiefly to give them the greater advantage of expressing their love to him in denying them for his sake God never intended by that strange Providence in bringing Moses to Pharaho's Court to settle him there in worldly pomp and grandure a carnal heart indeed would have expounded Providence and imported it as a faire occasion put into his hands by God to have advanced himself into the throne which some say he might in time have done but as an opportunity to make his faith and self-denial more eminently conspicuous in throwing all these at his heels for which he hath so honourable a remembrance among the Lords Worthies Heb. 11.24 25. And truly a gracious soule reckons he cannot make so much of his worldly interests any other way as by offering them up for Christs sake however that Traitour thought Maries ointment might have been carried to a better market yet no doubt that good woman her self was only troubled that she had not one more precious to poure on her dear Saviours head This makes the Christian ever to hold the sacrificing knife at the throat of his worldly enjoyments ready to offer them up when God calls over-board they shall go rather then hazard a wrack to faith or a good conscience he sought them in the last place and therefore he will part with them in the first Naboth will hazard the Kings anger which at last cost him his life rather then sell an acre or two of land which was his birth-right The Christian will expose all he hath in this wotld to preserve his hopes for another Iacob in his march towards Esau sent his servants with his flocks before and came himself with his wives behinde if he can save any thing from his brothers rage it shall be what he loves best If the Christian can save any thing it shall be his soule his interest in Christ and Heaven and then no matter if the rest go even then he can say not as Esau to Iacob I have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great deal but as Iacob to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have all all I want all I desire as David expresseth it This is all my salvation all and my desire 2 Sam. 23.5 Now try whether thy heart be tuned to this note does heaven give law to thy earthly enjoyments wouldest thou not keep thy honour estate no not life it selfe to prejudice thy heavenly nature and hopes which wouldest thou choose if thou couldest not keep both a whole skin or a sound conscience It was a strange answer if true which the Historian saith Henry the fifth gave to his Father who had usurped the crown and now dying sent for this his son to whom he said Fair Son take the crown which stood on his pillow by his head but God knowes how I came by it to whom he answered I care not how you came by it now I have it I will keep it as long as my sword can defend it He that keeps earth by wrong cannot expect heaven by right CHAP. XIII An Exhortation to the pursuit of heaven and heavenly things Vse 3 THirdly Is it heaven and all that is heavenly that Satan seeks to hinder us of let this provoke us the more earnestly to contend for them
must dance after Nebuchadnezzars pipe or burne This was the plot laid to ensnare Daniel who walk't so unblameably that his very enemies gave him this testimony that he had no fault but his singularity in his Religion Dan. 6.5 'T is a great honour to a Christian yea to Religion it selfe when all their enemies can say is they are precise and will not do as we do Now in such a case as this when the Christian must turn or burne leave praying or become a prey to the cruel teeth of bloody men how many politick retreats and self-preserving distinctions would a cowardly unresolved heart invent The Christian that hath so great opposition had need be well lock't into the saddle of his Profession or else he will be soon dismounted Thirdly the Christian must keep on his way to heaven in the midst of all the scandals that are cast upon the wayes of God by the Apostasie and foul falls of false Professors There were ever such in the Church who by their sad miscarriages in judgement and practice have laid a stone of offence in the way of Profession at which weak Christians are ready to make a stand as they at the bloody body of Asahel not knowing whether they may venture any further in their Profession Seeing such whose gifts they so much admired lie before them wallowing in the blood of their slaine Profession of zealous Professors to prove perhaps fiery persecutors of strict Performers of religious duties irreligious Atheists no more like the men they were some yeares past then the vale of Sodom now a bog and quagmire is to what it was when for fruitfulnesse compared to the garden of the Lord. We had need have a holy resolution to bear up against such discouragements and not to faint as Joshuah who lived to see the whole Camp of Israel a very few excepted revolting and in their hearts turning back to Egypt and yet with an undaunted Spirit maintained his integrity yea resolved though not a man beside would beare him company yet he would serve the Lord. Fourthly the Christian must trust in a withdrawing God Isa 50 v. 10. Let him that walks in darknesse and sees no light trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God This requires a holy boldnesse of faith indeed to venture into Gods presence as Esther into Ahashuerus when no smile is to be seen on his face no golden scepter of the promise perceived by the soule as held forth to embolden it to come near then to presse in with this noble resolution If I perish I perish Nay more to trust not only in a withdrawing but a killing God not when his love is hid but when his wrath breakes forth Now for a soule to make its approaches to God by a recumbency of faith while God seemes to fire upon it and shoot his frownes like envenomed arrowes into it This is hard work and will trie the Christians mettal to purpose Yet such a masculine spirit we finde in that poore woman of Canaan who takes up the bullets Christ shot at her and with an humble boldnesse of faith sends them back again in her prayer Fifthly the believer is to persevere in his Christian course to the end of his life his work and his life must go off the stage together This addes weight to every other difficulty of the Christians calling We have known many who have gone into the field and liked the work of a souldier for a battel or two but soon have had enough and come running home again but few can bear it as a constant trade Many are soon engaged in holy duties easily perswaded to take up a Profession of Religion and as easily perswaded to lay it down like the new Moon which shines a little in the first part of the night but is down before half the night be gone the lightsome Professors in their youth whose old age is wrapt up in thick darknesse of sin and wickednesse O this persevering is a hard word this taking up the crosse daily this praying alwayes this watching night and day and never laying aside our clothes and armour I mean indulging our selves to remit and unbend in our holy waiting on God and walking with God this sends many sorrowful away from Christ yet this is the Saints duty to make Religion his every day work without any vacation from one end of the yeare to the other These few instances are enough to shew what need the Christian hath of resolution The application followes Vse 1 This gives us then a reason why there are so many Professors and so few Christians indeed so many that run and so few obtain so many go into the field against Satan and so few come out Conquerours because all have a desire to be happy but few have courage and resolution to grapple with the difficulties that meet them in the way to their happinesse All Israel came joyfully out of Egypt under Moses his conduct yea and a mixed multitude with them but when their bellies were a little pinched with hunger and their greedy desires of a present Canaan deferred yea instead of peace and plenty war and penury they like white-liver'd souldiers are ready to flie from their colours and make a dishonourable retreat into Egypt Thus the greatest part of those who professe the Gospel when they come to push of pike to be tried what they will do deny endure for Christ grow sick of their enterprise alas their hearts fail them they are like the waters of Bethlehem but if they must dispute their passage with so many enemies they will even content themselves with their own Cistern and leave heaven to others that will venture more for it O how many part with Christ at this crosse-way like Orpah they go a furlong or two with Christ while he goes to take them off from their worldly hopes and bids them prepare for hardship and then they fairly kisse and leave him loath indeed to lose heaven but more loth to buy it at so dear a rate Like some green heads that childishly make choice of some sweet trade such as is the Confectioners from a liquorish tooth they have to the junkets it affords but meeting with soure sauce of labour and toile that goes with them they give in and are weary of their service the sweet bait of Religion hath drawn many to nibble at it who are offended with the hard service it calls to It requires another spirit then the world can give or receive to follow Christ fully Vse 2 Let this then exhort you Christians to labour for this holy resolution and prowesse which is so needful for your Christian Profession that without it you cannot be what you professe The fearful are in the forelorne of those that march for hell Rev. 21. the violent and valiant are they which take heaven by force Cowards never wan heaven Say not thou hast royal blood running in thy veins and art begotten
of God except thou canst prove thy pedigree by this heroick spirit to dare to be holy in spite of men and devils The Eagle tries her young ones by the Sun Christ tries his children by their courage that dare look on the face of death and danger for his sake Mark 8.34 35. O how uncomly a sight is it a bold sinner and a fearful Saint one resolved to be wicked and a Christian wavering in his holy course to see guilt put innocency to flight and hell keep the field impudently braving it with displayed banners of open profanenesse and Saints to hide their colours for shame or run from them for feare who should rather wrap themselves in them and die upon the place then thus betray the glorious Name of God which is called upon by them to the scorne of the uncircumcised Take heart therefore O ye Saints and be strong your cause is good God himself espouseth your quarrel who hath appointed you his own Son General of the field called The Captain of our salvation He shall lead you on with courage and bring you off with honour He lived and died for you he will live and die with you for mercy and tendernesse to his souldiers none like him Trajan 't is said rent his clothes to binde up his souldiers wounds Christ poured out his blood as balm to heal his Saints wounds teares of his flesh to binde them up For prowesse none to compare with him he never turn'd his head from danger no not when hells malice and heavens justice appeared in field against him Knowing all that should come upon him went forth and said Whom seek ye John 18.4 For successe insuperable he never lost battel even when he lost his life he wan the field carrying the spoiles thereof in the triumphant chariot of his Ascension to heaven with him where he makes an open shew of them to the unspeakable joy of Saints and Angels You march in the midst of gallant spirits your fellow-souldiers every one the Son of a Prince Behold some enduring with you here below a great fight of afflictions and temptations take heaven by storme and force Others you may see after many assaults repulses and rallyings of their faith and patience got upon the walls of heaven Conquerours from whence they do as it were look down and call you their fellow-brethren on earth to march up the hill after them crying aloud Fall on and the city is your own as now it is ours who for a few dayes conflict are now crowned with heavens glory one moments enjoyment of which hath dried up all our teares healed all our wounds and made us forget the sharpnesse of the fight with the joy of our present victory In a word Christians God and Angels are Spectatours observing how you quit your selves like children of the most High every exploit your faith doth against sin and Satan causeth a shout in heaven while you valiantly prostrate this temptation scale that difficulty regain the other ground you even now lost out of your enemies hands Your deare Saviour who stands by with a reserve for your relief at a pinch his very heart leaps within him for joy to see the proof of your love to him and zeal for him in all your combates and will not forget all the faithful service you have done in his wars on earth but when thou comest out of the field will receive thee with the like joy as he was entertained himself at his return to heaven of his Father Now Christian if thou meanest thus couragiously to bear up against all opposition in thy march to heaven as thou shouldest do well to raise thy spirit with such generous and soul-ennobling thoughts so in an especial manner look thy principles be well fixt or else thy heart will be unstable and an unstable heart is weak as water it cannot excel in courage Two things are required to fix our principles First an established judgement in the truth of God He that knows not well what or whom he fights for may soon be perswaded to change his side or at least stand Neuter such may be found that go for Professours that can hardly give an account what they hope for or whom they hope in yet Christians they must be thought though they run before they know their errand or if they have some principles they go upon they are so unsetled that every winde blowes them down like loose tyles from the house top Blinde zeale is soon put to a shameful retreat while holy resolution built on fast principles lifts up its head like a rock in the midst of the waves Those that know their God shall be strong and do exploits Dan. 11.32 The Angel told Daniel who were the men that would stand to their tackling and bear up for God in that houre both of temptation and persecution which should be brought upon them by Antiochus not all the Jewes some of them should be corrupt barely by flatteries others scared by threats out of their Profession only a few of fixed principles who knew their God whom they served and were grounded in their Religion these should be strong and do exploits that is to flatteries they should be incorruptible and to power and force unconquerable Secondly a sincere aime at the right end in our Profession Let a man be never so knowing in the things of Christ if his aime be not right in his Profession that mans principles will hang loose he 'll not venture much or far for Christ no more no further then he can save his own stake A hypocrite may shew some mettal at hand some courage for a spurt in conquering some difficulties but he 'll shew himself a jade at length He that hath a false end in his Profession will soon come to an end of his Profession when he is pinch't on that toe where his corn is I meane called to deny that his naughty heart aimed at all this while now his heart sailes him he can go no further O take heed of this squint eye to our profit pleasure honour or any thing beneath Christ and heaven for they will take away your heart as the Prophet saith of wine and women that is our love and if our love be taken away there will be little courage left for Christ How couragious was Jehu at first and he tells the world it is zeale for God but why doth his heart faile him then before half his work be done his heart was never right set that very thing that stirr'd up hâ—s zeal at first at last quench't and cow'd it and that was his ambition his desire of a Kingdom made him zealous against Ahabs house to cut off them who might in time justle him besides the throne which done and he quietly setled he dare not go through-stitch with Gods work lest he should lose what he got by provoking the people with a thorough information Like some souldiers when once they meet with a rich
his Heifer He opens the wombe of the soule to conceive by it as the understanding to conceive of it that the barren soul becomes a joyful mother of children David sate for halfe a year under the publick Lectures of the Law and the wombe of his heart shut up till Nathan comes and God with him and now is the time of life he conceives presently yea and brings forth in the same day falls presently into the bitter pangs of sorrow for his sins which went not over till he had cast them forth in that sweet Psalm 51. Why should this one word work more then all the former but that God now struck in with his Word which he did not before He is therefore said to teach his people to profit he sits in heaven that teacheth hearts When Gods Spirit who is the Head-master shall call a soul from his Usher to himselfe and say Soul you have not gone the way to thrive by hearing the Word thus and thus conceive of such a truth improve such a promise presently the eyes of his understanding open and his heart burnes within him while he speaks to him Thus you see the truth of this Point That the Christians strength is in the Lord. Now we shall give some demonstrations SECT I. Reason 1 The first Reason may be taken from the nature of the Saints and their grace both are creatures they and their grace also now Inesse est de esse creaturae 'T is in the very nature of the creature to depend on God its Maker both for being and operation Can you conceive an accident to be out of its subject whitenesse out of the wall or some other subject 't is as impossible that the creature should be or act without strength from God This to be act in and of himself is so incommunicable a property of the Deity that he cannot impart it to his creature God is and there is none besides him when God made the world it is said indeed he ended his work that is of Creation he made no new species and kindes of creatures more but to this day he hath not ended his work of Providence Hitherto my Father worketh saith Christ John 5.17 that is in preserving and empowering what he hath made with strength to be and act and therefore he is said to hold our souls in life Works of Art which man makes when finish't may stand some time without the Workmans help as the house when the Carpenter that made it is dead but Gods works both of nature and grace are never off his hand and therefore as the Father is said to work hitherto for the preservation of the works of nature so the Son to whom is committed the work of Redemption he tells us he worketh also Neither ended he his work when he rose again any otherways then his Father did in the work of Creation God made an end of making so Christ made an end of purchasing mercy grace and glory for believers by once dying and as God rested at the end of the Creation so he when he had wrought eternal Redemption and by himself purged our sins sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on High Heb. 1.3 But he ceaseth not to work by his intercession with God for us and by his Spirit in us for God whereby he upholds his Saints their graces and comforts in life without which they would run to ruine Thus we see as grace is a creature the Christian depends on God for his strength But further Reason 2 Secondly the Christians grace is not only a creature but a weak creature conflicting with enemies stronger then it selfe and therefore cannot keep the field without an auxiliary strength from Heaven The weakest goes to the wall if no succour comes in Grace in this life is but weak like a King in the Cradle which gives advantage to Satan to carry on his plots more strongly to the disturbance of this young Kings reigne in the soule yea he would soon make an end of the war in the ruine of the believers grace did not Heaven take the Christian into protection 'T is true indeed grace whereever it is hath a principle in it selfe that makes it desire and endeavour to preserve it self according to its strength but being over-powered must perish except assisted by God as fire in green wood which deads and damps the part kindled will in time go out except blown up or more fire put to that little so will grace in the heart God brings his grace into the heart by Conquest now as in a conquered City though some yield and become true subjects to the Conquerour yet others plot how they may shake off this yoke and therefore it requires the same power to keep as was to win it at first The Christian hath an unregenerate part that is discontented at this new change in the heart and disdains as much to come under the sweet government of Christs Scepter as the Sodomites that Lot should judge them What this fellow a Stranger controule us And Satan heads this mutinous rout against the Christian so that if God should not continually re-inforce this his new-planted Colony in the heart the very natives I mean corruptions that are left would come out of their dens and holes where they lie lurking and eat up the little grace the holiest on earth hath it would be as bread to these devourers Reason 3 A third demonstration may be taken from the grand designe which God propounds to himself in the Saints salvation yea in the transaction of it from first to last And that is two-fold First God would bring his Saints to heaven in such a way as might be most expressive of his deare love and mercy to them Secondly he would so expresse his mercy and love to them as might rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory possible Now how becoming this is to both that Saints should have all their ability for every step they take in the way to heaven will soon appear First this way of communicating strength to Saints gives a double accent to Gods love and mercy First it distills a sweetnesse into all the believer hath or doth when he findes any comfort in his bosome any enlargement of heart in duty any support under temptations To consider whence came all these what friend sends them in they come not from my own cisterne or any creatures O 't is my God that hath been here and left this sweet perfume of comfort behinde him in my bosome my God that hath unawares to me fill'd my sailes with the gales of his Spirit and brought me off the flats of my own deadnesse where I lay a ground O 't is his sweet Spirit that held my head stayed my heart in such an affliction and temptation or else I had gone away in a fainting fit of unbelief How can this choose but endear God to a gracious soul his succours coming so
concerning some truth or promise but then hath a spiritual eye which the Christlesse person wants and so is darknesse And this darknesse cannot be enlightened but by its union with Christ which is exprest in the following phrase But now are ye light in the Lord. As the eye of the body once put out can never be restored by the creatures Art so neither can the spiritual eye lost by Adams sin be restored by the teaching of men or Angels It is one of the diseases which Christ came to cure Luke 4.18 'T is true there is a light of reason which is imparted to every man by nature but this light is darknesse compared with the Saints As the night is dark to the day even when the moon is in its full glory This night-light of Reason may save a person from some ditch or pond great and broad sins but it will never help him to escape the more secret corruptions which the Saint sees like atomes in the beams of spiritual knowledge There is such curious work the creature is to do which cannot be wrought by candle-light of natural knowledge Nay more where the common illumination of the Spirit is superadded to this light of nature yet that is darknesse compar'd with the sanctifying knowledge of a renewed soule which doth both discover spiritual truths and warme the heart at the same time with the love of truth having like the Sun a prolifical and quickening vertue which the other wants so that the heart lies under such common illuminations cold and dead He hath no more strength to resist Satan then if he knew not the command whereas the Christians knowledge even when taken Prisoner by a temptation pursues and brings back the soul as Abraham his Nephew out of the enemies hands which hints the third Thirdly the Christlesse state is a state of impotency Rom. 5. When we were without strength Christ came to die for the ungodly What can a disarm'd people that have not sword or gun do to shake off the yoke of a conquering enemie Such a power hath Satan over the soule Luke 11.21 he is call'd the strong man that keeps the soule as his Palace If he hath no disturbance from heaven he need feare no mutiny within he keeps all in peace there What the Spirit of God doth in a Saint that in a manner doth Satan in a sinner The Spirit fills the heart of his with love joy holy desires feares so Satan fills the sinners heart with pride lust lying Why hath Satan filled thy heart saith Peter And thus fill'd with Satan as the drunkard with wine he is not his own man but Satans slave Fourthly the state of unregeneracy is a state of friendship with sin and Satan If it be enmity against God as it is then friendship with Satan Now it will be hard to make that soule fight in earnest against his friend Is Satan divided will the devil within fight against the devil without Satan in the heart shut out Satan at the door sometimes indeed there appears a scuffle between Satan and a carnal heart but it is a meer cheat like the fighting of two fencers on a stage you would think at first they were in earnest but observing how wary they are where they hit one another you may soon know they do not mean to kill and that which puts all out of doubt when the prize is done you shall see them making merry together with what they have got of their Spectatours which was all they fought for when a carnal heart makes the greatest bussle against sin by complaining of it or praying against it follow him but off the stage of duty where he hath gained the reputation of a Saint the prize he fights for and you shall see them sit as friendly together in a corner as ever Vse 1 First this takes away the wonder of Satans great Conquests in the world when you look abroad and see his vast Empire and what a little spot of ground contains Christs subjects what heaps of precious souls lie prostrate under this foot of pride and what a little regiment of Saints march under Christs banner perhaps the strangenesse of the thing may make you ask Is hell stronger then heaven the armes of Satan more victorious then the Crosse of Christ No such matter Consider but this one thing and you will wonder that Christ hath any to follow him rather then that he hath so few Satan findes the world unarm'd when the Prince of the world comes he findes nothing to oppose the whole soule is in a disposition to yield at first summons and if Conscience Governour for God in the creature stands out a while all the other powers as will and affections are in a discontent like mutinous souldiers in a garrison who never rest till they have brought over conscience to yield or against its command set open the City gate to the enemie and so deliver traiterously their conscience prisoner to their lusts But when Christ comes to demand the soul he meets a scornful answer Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of the most High We will not have this man to reign over us With one consent they vote against him and rise up as the Philistines against Samson whom they call'd the Destroyer of the countrey Ye will not come unto me saith Christ O how true are poor sinners to the devils trust They will not deliver the Castle they hold for Satan till fired over their heads Pharaoh opposeth Moses on one hand and Israel cry out upon him on the other Such measure hath Christ both at Satans hand and the sinners That which lessened Alexanders Conquests was he overcame a people buried in barbarisme without armes or discipline of war and that which heightened Cesars though not so many he overcame a people more warlike and furnish't Satans victories are of poor ignorant gracelesse souls who have neither armes nor hands nor hearts to oppose but when he assaults a Saint then he sits down before a city with gates and bars and ever riseth with shame unable to take the weakest hold to pluck the weakest Saint out of Christs hands but Christ brings souls out of his dominion with a high hand in spite of all the force and fury of hell which like Pharaoh and his hoste pursue them Vse 2 Secondly this gives us a reason why the devil hath so great a spite against the Gospel Why because this opens a magazine of armes and furniture for the soule the Word is that Tower of David Cant. 4.4 built for an Armourie wherein there hang a thousand bucklers all the shields of mighty men Hence the Saints have ever had their armour and the preaching of the Gospel unlocks it As Gospel-light ascends so Satans shady Kingdom of darknesse vanisheth Rev. 14.6 there one Angel comes forth to preach the everlasting Gospel and another Angel followes at his back verse 8. crying Victoria Babylon is fallen is fallen The very first
Israelitish army now to march out of Egypt surely his wisdom would have directed rather to have plundered the Egyptians of their horse and armes as more necessary for such an expedition then to borrow their jewels and eare-rings but God will have them come out naked and on foot and Moses keeps close to his order yea when any horses were taken in battel because God commanded they should be houghed they obeyed though to their seeming disadvantage It was Gods war they waged and therefore but reasonable they should be under his command they encamp't and march't by his order as the Ark moved or rested they fought by his command the number appointed by him the means and weapons they should use all prescribed by God as in the assault of Jericho and what is the Gospel of all this for surely God had an eye in that to our marching to heaven and our fighting with these cursed spirits and lusts that stand in our way but that we should fight lawfully using those means which we have from his mouth in his Word Vse 1 This reproveth two sorts First those that fight Satan in Armour that hath no divine Institution as First the Papist Look into his armoury and hardly a piece that will be found Armour of God They fight in the Popes armour his authority is the shop wherein their weapons are forged It were a kinde of pennance to your patience to repeat all the several pieces of armour with which they load silly soules too heavy indeed for the broadest shoulders among them to bear yea more then the wiser sort of them mean to use their masses mattens vigils pilgrimages Lent-fasts whippings vowes of chastity poverty with a world of such trash where is a Word of God for these who hath required these things at their hands a thousand woes will one day fall upon those Impostors who have strip't the people of the true Armour of God and put these reeds and bulrushes in their hands This may justifie us in the sight of God and men for our departure from them who will force us to venture the life of our soules in such paper-armour when God hath provided better Secondly the carnal Protestant who fights in fleshly armour 2 Cor. 10.3 the Apostle speaks there of warring after the flesh that is with weapons or means which mans carnal wisdome prompts to and not God commands and so are weak How few are clad with other in the day of battel First when Satan tempts to sin if he hath not presently a peaceable entrance yet the resistance commonly made is carnal the strength carnal they rest on their own not Gods the motives carnal as the fear of man more then of God Where one saith How shall I do this and sin against God many in their hearts say How shall I do this and anger man displease my Master provoke my Parents and lose the good opinion of my Minister Herod feared John and did many things had he fear'd God he would have laboured to have done every thing The like may be said of all other motives which have their spring in the creature not in God they are armour which will not out-stand shot If thy strength lie in a creature-lock it may be soon cut off if in God it will hold as his command It is written I cannot do it but I must set my foot on the Law of my Maker Or the love of Christ I cannot come at my lust but I must go over my bleeding Saviour and therefore away foule Tempter I hate thee and thy motion This foundation is rock and will stand but if it be some carnal respect that balanceth thee another more weighty may be found of the same kinde which will cast the scales another way She that likes not the man because of his dresse only may soon be gain'd when he comes in another habit Satan can change his suit and then thy mouth will be stop't when thy carnal argument is taken off Secondly when the Word or Conscience rebuke for sin what is the armour that men commonly cover their guilty soules withal truly no other then carnal If they cannot evade the charge that these bring then they labour to mitigate it by extenuating the fact 'T is true will they say I did I confesse commit such a fault but I was drawen in The woman gave me and I did eate was Adams fig-leaf armour 't is but once or twice and I hope that breaks no such squares was this such a great businesse I know jolly Christians will do as much as this comes to I thank God I cannot be charged for whore or thief This is the armour that must keep off the blow But if Conscience will not be thus taken off then they labour to divert their thoughts by striking up the loud musick of carnal delights that the noise of one may drown the other or with Cain they will go from the presence of the Lord and come no more at those Ordinances which make their head ake and hinder the rest of their raving consciences If yet the ghost haunts them then they labour to pacifie it with some good work or other which they set against their bad their almes and charity in their old age must expiate the oppression and violence of their former dayes as if this little frankincense were enough to aire and take away the plague of Gods curse which is in their ill gotten goods Thus poor creatures catch at any sorry covering which will not so much as hide their shame much lesse choak the bullet of Gods wrath when God shall fire upon them this must he Armour of Gods appointing Adam was naked for all his fig-leaves while God taught him to make coats of skins covertly as some think shadowing out Christ the true Lambe of God whose righteousnesse alone was appointed by him to cover our shame and arme our naked souls from the sight and stroke of his justice Secondly it reproves those who use the Armour of God but not as God hath appointed which appears in three sorts First when a person useth a duty appointed by God not as Armour of defence against sin but as a cover for sin Who would think him an enemie that weares Christs colours in his hat and marcheth after Christ in the exercise of all the duties of his worship such a one may passe all the Courts of guard without so much as being bid stand all take him for a friend and yet some such there are who are fighting against Christ all the while The hypocrite is the man he learnes his postures gets the Word hath his tongue tip'c with Scripture-language and walks in the habit of a Christian meerly on a design to drive his trade the more closely Like some high-way men in our dayes who rob in the habit of souldiers that they may be the lesse suspected this is desperate wickednesse indeed to take up Gods armes and use them in the devils service of all
God yes they hope they are not infidels but what it is how they come by it or whether it will hold in an evil-day this never was put to the question in their hearts Thus thousands perish with a vain conceit they are arm'd against Satan death and judgment when they are miserable and naked yea worse on it then those who are more naked those I mean who have not a rag of civility to hide their shame from the worlds eye and that in a double respect First it is harder to work on such a soul savingly because he hath a forme though not the power and this affords him a plea. A soule purely naked nothing like the wedding garment on he is speechlesse the drunkard hath nothing to say for himself when you ask him why he lives so swinishly you may come up to him and get within him and turn the very mouth of his conscience upon him which will shoot conviction into him But come to deal with one that prayes and heares one that is a pretender to faith and hope in God here is a man in glistering armour he hath his weapon in his hand with which he will keep the Preacher and the Word he chargeth him with at armes length Who can say I am not a Saint what duty do I neglect here 's a breast-work he lies under which makes him not so faire a mark either to the observation or reproof of another his chief defect being within where mans eye comes not Again 't is harder to work on him because he hath been tamper'd with already and miscarried in the essay How comes such a one to he acquainted with such duties to make such a Profession was it ever thus No the Word hath been at work upon him his conscience hath scared him from his trade of wickednesse into a forme of Profession but taking in short of Christ for want of a through change it is harder to remove him then the other he is like a lock whose wards have been troubled which makes it harder to turn the Key then if never potter'd with 'T is better dealing with a wilde ragged cole never back't then one that in breaking hath took a wrong stroak A bone quite out of joynt then false set In a word such a one hath more to deny then a profane person the one hath but his lusts his whores his swill and draffe but the other hath his duties his seeming graces O how hard is it to perswade such a one to light and hold Christs stirrup while he and his duties are made Christs foot-stool Secondly such a one is deepest in condemnation None sink so far into hell as those that come nearest heaven because they fall from the greatest height As it aggravates the torments of damned souls in this respect above devils they had a cord of mercy thrown out to them which devils had not so by how much God by his Spirit waits on pleads with and by both gains on a soul more then others by so much such a one if he perish will finde hell the hotter these adde to his sin and the rememberance of his sin in hell thus accented will adde to his torment None will have such a sad parting from Christ as those who went half-way with him and then left him Therefore I beseech you look to your armour David would not fight in armour he had not tried though it was a Kings perhaps some thought him too nice What is not the Kings armour good enough for David Thus many will say Art thou so curious and precise such a great man doth thus and thus and hopes to come to heaven at last and darest not thou venture thy soule in his armour No Christian follow not the example of the greatest on earth 't is thy own soul thou venturest in battel therefore thou canst not be too choice of thy armour Bring thy heart to the Word as the only touch-stone of thy grace and furniture the Word I told you is the Tower of David from whence thy armour must be fetch 't if thou canst finde this Tower-stamp on it then 't is of God else not Try it therefore by this one Scripture-stamp Those weapons are mighty which God gives his Saints to fight his battels withal 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God The sword of the Spirit hath its point and edge whereby it makes its way into the heart and conscience through the impenitency of the one and stupidity of the other wherewith Satan as with buffe and coat of male armes the sinner against God and there cuts and slashes kills and mortifies lust in its own Castle where Satan thinks himself impregnable The Breast-plate which is of God doth not bend and break at every pat of temptation but is of such a divine temperament that it repels Satans motions with scorne on Satans teeth Should such a one as I sin as Nehemiah in another case and such are all the rest Now try whether your weapons be mighty or weak what can you do or suffer more for God then an hypocrite that is clad in fleshly armour I 'le tell you what the world faith and if you be Christians clear your selves and wipe off that dirt which they throw upon your glistering armour they say These Professors indeed have God more in their talk then we they are oftner in the mount of duty then we but when they come down into their shops relations and worldly employments then the best of them all is but like one of us they can throw the Tables of Gods Commandments out of their hands as well as we come from a Sermon and be as covetous and griping as peevish and passionate as the worst they shew as little love to Christ as others when it is matter of cost as to relieve a poor Saint or maintain the Gospel you may get more from a stranger an enemie then from a professing brother O Christians either vindicate the Name of Christ whose Ensign you seem to march after or throw away your seeming armour by which you have drawn the eyes of the world upon you If you will not Christ himself will cashiere you and that with shame enough ere long Never call that Armour of God which defends thee not against the power of Satan Take therefore the several pieces of your armour and try them as the souldier before he fights will set his helmet or head-piece as a mark at which he lets flie a brace of bullets and as he findes them so will weare them or leave them but be sure thou shootest Scripture-bullets Thou boastest of a breast-plate of righteousnesse ask thy soul Didst thou ever in thy life perform a duty to please God and not to accommodate thy self Thou hast prayed often against thy sin a great noise of these pieces have been heard coming from thee by others as if there were some hot fight between thee and thy corruption but canst thou
dregs of carnal passions which Satan knows and therefore chooseth to stir what he sees troubled already Secondly when the Saint is beset with some great affliction This is as some blinde lane or solitary place fit for this thief to call for his purse in An expert Captain first labours to make a breach in the wall and then falls on instorming the City Satan first got power from God to weaken Job in his estate children health and other comforts he had and now tempts him to impatience and what not he le ts Christ fast fourty dayes before he comes and then he falls to his work as an army stayes till a Castle be pinch't for provision within and then sends a parley never more likely to be embraced then in such a strait A temptation comes strong when the way to relief seems to lie through the sin that Satan is wooing to when one is poor and Satan comes What wilt starve rather then step over the hedge and steal for thy supply this is enough to put flesh and blood to the stand Thirdly when the Christian is about some notable enterprize for Gods glory then Satan will lie like a Serpent in the way an Adder in the path that biteth his horse-heels so that his Rider shall fall backward Thus he stood at Joshua's right hand to resist him The right hand is the working hand and his standing there implies his desire to hinder him in his enterprize Indeed the devil was never friend to Temple-work and therefore that work is so long a doing What a handsom excuse doth he help the Jews unto The time is not come Gods time was come but not the devils and therefore he helps them to this poor shift perverting the sense of Providence as if it were not time because they were so poor whereas they thrive no better because they went no sooner about the work as God tells them plainly Paul and Barnabas had a holy design in their thoughts to go visit the brethren in every City and strengthen their faith the devil knew what a blow this might give to his Kingdome their visiting might hinder him in his Circuit and he stirs up an unhappy difference between these two holy men who grow so hot that they part in this storme Acts 15.30 There were two remarkable periods of Christs life his Intrat and Exit his entrance into his publick Ministery at his Baptisme and his finishing it at his passion and at both we have the devil fiercely encountring him The more publick thy place Christian and the more eminent thy service for God the more thou must look that the devil will have some more dangerous design or other against thee and therefore if every private souldier needs armour against Satans bullets of temptation then the Commanders and Officers who stand in the front of the battel much more Fourthly when he hath the presence of some object to enforce his temptation Thus he takes Eve when she is near the tree and had it in her eye while he should make the motion that assaulting two Ports at once it might be the harder for her to hinder the landing of his temptation and if Eves eye did so soon affect her heart with an inordinate desire then much more now is it easie for him by the presence of the object to excite and actuate that lust which lies dormant in the heart As Naomi sent her daughter to lie at Boaz his feet knowing well if he endured her there there were hope he might take her into his bed at last If the Christian can let the object come so near Satan will promise himself his suit may in time be granted Therefore it should be our care if we would not yield to the sin not to walk by or sit at the door of the occasion Look not on that beauty with a wandring eye by which thou wouldest not be taken Prisoner parley not with that in thy thoughts which thou meanest not to let into thy heart conversation begets affection some by this have been brought to marry those whom at first they thought they could not have liked Fifthly after great manifestations of Gods love then the Tempter comes Such is the weak constitution of grace that it can neither well bear smiles or frowns from God without a snare As one said of our English Nation Totam nec pati potest libertatem nec servitutem It cannot well bear liberty nor bondage in the height So neither can the soule if God smile and opens himself a little familiarly to us then we are prone to grow high and wanton if he frown then we sink as much in our faith thus the one like faire weather and warme gleams bring up the weeds of corruption and the other lâ—ke sharp frosts nip and even kill the flowers of grace the Christian is in danger on both hands therefore Satan takes this advantage when the Christian is flush of comfort even as a cheater who strikes in with some young heire when he hath newly received his rents and never leaves till he hath eased him of his money thus Satan lies upon the catch then to inveigle a Saint into one sin or other which he knows will soon leak out his joy Had ever any a larger testimony from Heaven then Peter Matth. 16.17 where Christ pronounceth him blessed and puts a singular honour upon him making him the Representative for all his Saints No doubt this favour to Peter stirred up the envious spirit the sooner to fall upon him If Josephs party-coloured coat made the Patriarchs to plot against him their brother no wonder malice should prompt Satan to shew his spite where Christ had set such a mark of love and honour and therefore we finde him soon at Peters elbowe making him his instrument to tempt his Master who soon espied his cloven foot and rebukes Peter with a Get thee behinde me Satan He that seem'd a Rock even now through Satans policy is laid as a stone of offence for Christ to stumble at So David when he had received such wonderful mercies setled in his throne with the ruine of his enemies yea pardoned for his bloody sin now ready to lay down his head with peace in the dust Satan chops in to cloud his clear evening and tempts him to number the people so ambitious is Satan then chiefly to throw the Saint into the mire of sin when his coat is cleanest Sixthly at the houre of death when the Saint is down and prostrate in his bodily strength now this coward falls upon him 't is the last cast indeed he hath for the game now or never overcome him now and ever as they say of the natural serpent Nunquam nisi moriens producitur in longum he never is seen at his length till dying so this mystical serpent never strains his wits and wiles more then when his time is thus short The Saint is even stepping into eternity and now he treads upon his heele which
Satan knowes this too well and therefore as some thieves when they come to rob an house either gagge them in it or hold a pistol to their breast frighting them with death if they cry or speak Thus Satan that he may more freely rifle the soule of its peace and comfort over-awes it so that it dares not disclose his temptation O saith Satan if thy brethren or friends know such a thing by thee they 'l cast thee off others will hoote at thee Thus many a poor soul hath been kept long in its pangs by biting them in thou losest Christian a double help by keeping the devils secret the counsel and prayers of thy fellow-brethren and what an invaluable losse is this CHAP. VIII Of the Saints victory over their subtile enemy and whence it is that creatures so over-match't should be able to stand against Satans wiles THe second Branch of the Apostles Argument followes to excite them the more vigourously to their armes and that is from the possibility yea certainty of standing against this subtile enemie if thus arm'd That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil So that this gives the Apostles argument its due temperament for he meant not to scare them into a cowardly flight or sullen despaire of victory when he tells them their enemy is so subtile and politick but to excite them to a vigourous resistance from the assured hope of strength to stand in battel and victoriously after it which two I conceive are comprehended in that phrase standing against the wiles of Satan Sometimes to stand implies a fighting posture so verse 14. Sometimes a conquering posture Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth That earth which was the field where all the bloody battels were fought betwixt him and Satan on it shall he stand when not an enemy shall dare to shew his head So that taking both these in the Observation is Satan with all his wits and wiles shall never vanquish a soule arm'd with true grace nay he that hath this armour of God on shall vanquish him Look into the Word you shall not finde a Saint but hath been in the list with him sifted and winnowed more or lesse by this enemy yet at last we finde them all coming off with an honourable victory as in David Job Peter Paul who were the hardest put to it of any upon record and lest some should attribute their victory to the strength of their inherent grace above other of their weaker brethren you have the glory of their victories appropriated to God in whom the weak are as strong as the strongest We shall give a double Reason of this truth why the Christian who seemes to be so over-match't is yet so unconquerable First the curse that lies upon Satan and his cause Gods curse blasts whereever it comes The Canaanites with their neighbour-Nations were bread for Israel though people famous for warre and why They were cursed Nations The Egyptians a politick people Let us deal wisely say they yet being cursed of God this lay like a thorne at their heart and was at last their ruine yea let the Israelites themselves who carry the badge of Gods Covenant on their flesh by their sins once become the people of Gods curse and they are trampled like dirt under the Assyrians feet This made Balak beg so hard for a curse upon Israel Now there is an irrevokeable curse cleaves to Satan from Gen. 3.14 15. And the Lord said to the Serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed c. which place though partly meant of the literal serpent yet chiefly of the devil and the wicked his spiritual serpentine brood as appeares by the enmity pronounced against the Serpents seed and the womans which clearly holds forth the feud between Christ with his seed against the devil and his Now there are two things in that curse which may comfort the Saints First the curse prostrates Satan under their feet Vpon thy belly shalt thou go which is no more then is elsewhere promised that God will subdue Satan under our feet Now this prostrate condition of Satan assures believers that the devil shall never lift his head that is his wily policy higher then the Saints heele He may make thee limp but not bereave thee of thy life and this bruise which he gives thee shall be rewarded with the breaking of his own head that is the utter ruine of him and his cause Secondly his food is here limited and appointed Satan shall not devoure whom he will The dust is his food which seems to restrain his power to the wicked who are of the earth earthy meere dust but for those who are of a heavenly extraction their graces are reserved for Christs food Cant. 7.13 and their souls surely are not a morsel for the devils tooth The second reason is taken from the wisdom of God who as he undertakes the ordering of the Christians way to heaven Ps 37.24 so especially this businesse of Satans temptations We finde Christ was not led of the evil spirit into the wildernesse to be tempted but of the Holy Spirit Mat. 4.1 Satan tempts not when he will but when God pleaseth and the same Holy Spirit which led Christ into the field brought him off with victory And therefore we finde him marching in the Power of the Spirit after he had repulsed Satan into Galilee Luke 4.14 When Satan tempts a Saint he is but Gods messenger 2 Cor. 12.7 There was given to me a thorne in the flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me So our Translation But rather as Beza who will have it in casu recto the Messenger Satan implying that he was sent of God to Paul And indeed the errand he came a was too good and gracious to be his own Lest I should be exalted above measure The devil never meant to do Paul such a good office but God sends him to Paul as David sent Vriah with letters to Joab neither knew the contents of their message The devil and his instruments both are Gods instruments therefore the wicked are called his sword his axe now let God alone to wield the one and handle the other He is but a bungler that hurts and hackles his own legs with his own axe which God should do if his children should be the worse for Satans temptations Let the devil choose his way God is for him at every weapon If he 'll try it by force of armes and assault the Saints by persecution as the Lord of Hostes he will oppose him If by policy and subtilty he is ready there also The devil and his whole counsel are but fooles to God Nay their wisdome foolishnesse Cunning and Art commend every thing but sinne The more artificial the watch the picture c. the better but the more wit and Art in sin the worse because it is employed against
of destroying his faith which he aimes at he is the occasion of the refining of it and thereby adding to its strength Secondly the love of tempted Saints is enkindled to Christ by their temptations and foiles in their temptations Possibly in the fit there may seem a damp upon their love as when water is first sprinkled upon the fire but when the Conflict is a little over and the Christian comes to himself his love to Christ will break out like a vehement flame First the shame and sorrow which a gracious soule must needs feele in his bosome for his sinful miscarriage while under the temptation will provoke him to expresse his love to Christ above others as is sweetly set forth in the Spouse who when the cold fit of her distemper was off and the temptation over bestirs her to purpose her lazy sicknesse is turned to love-sicknesse she findes it as hard now to sit as she did before to rise she can rest in no place out of her Beloveds sight but runs and asks every one she meets for him and whence came all this vehemency of her zeale all occasioned by her undutiful carriage to her husband she parted so unkindly with him that bethinking what she had done away she goes to make her peace If sins committed in unregeneracy have such a force upon a gracious soule that the thought of them though pardoned will still break and melt the heart into sorrow as we see in Magdalen and prick on to shew zeal for God above others as in Paul how much more will the sins of a Saint who after sweet acquaintance with Jesus Christ lifts up the heel against that bosome where he hath layen affect yea dissolve the heart as into so many drops of water and that sorrow provoke him to serve God at a higher rate then others No childe so dutiful in all the family as he who is return'd from his rebellion Again secondly as his own shame so the experience which such a one hath of Christs love above others will encrease his love Christs love is fuel to ours Ex iisdem nutrimur quibus constamus as it gives its being so it affords growth It is both Mother and Nurse to our love The more Christ puts forth his love the more heat our love gets and next to Christs dying love none greater then his succouring love in temptation The Mother never hath such advantage to shew her affection to her childe as when in distresse sick poor or imprisoned so neither hath Christ to his children as when tempted yea worsted by temptation When his children lie in Satans prison bleeding under the wounds of their consciences this is the season he takes to give an experiment of his tender heart in pitying his faithfulnesse in praying for them his mindfulnesse in sending succour to them yea his dear love in visiting them by his comforting Spirit Now when the soul hath got off some great temptation and reades the whole history thereof together wherein he findes what his own weaknesse was to resist Satan nay his unfaithfulnesse in complying with Satan which might have provok't Christ to leave him to the fury of Satan now to see both his folly pardoned and ruine graciously prevented and that by no other hand but Christs coming in to his rescue as Abishai to David when that gyant thought to have flaine him This must needs exceedingly endear Christ to the soul At the reading of such records the Christian cannot but enquire as Ahashuerus concerning Mordecai who by discovering a treason had saved the Kings life what honour hath been done to his sweet Saviour for all this And thus Jesus Christ whom Satan thought to bring out of the soules favour and liking comes in the end to sit higher and surer in the Saints affections then ever CHAP. X. A brief Application of the Point in two Branches Vse 1 THis affords a reason why God suffers his dear children to fall into temptation because he is able to out-shoot Satan in his own bowe and in the thing wherein he thinks to out-wit the Christian to be above him God will not only be admired by his Saints in glory for his love in their salvation but for his wisdom in the way to it The love of God in saving them will be the sweet draught at the marriage-feast and the rare wisdom of God in effecting this as the curious workmanship with which the cup shall be enamel'd Now wisdom appears most in untying knots and wading through difficulties The more crosse wards there are in a businesse the more wisdome to fit a key to the lock to make choice of such means as shall meet with the several turnings in the same On purpose therefore doth God suffer such temptations to intervene that his wisdom may be the more admired in opening all these and leading his Saints that way to glory by which Satan thought to have brought them to hell The Israelites are bid remember all the way that God led them in the wildernesse for fourty yeares Deut. 8.2 The History of these warres Christian will be pleasant to reade in heaven though bloody to fight on earth Moses and Elias talk't with Christ on Tabor an Embleme of the sweet communion which shall passe between Christ and his Saints in glory and what was their talk Luke 9.30 but of his death and sufferings It seems a discourse of our sufferings and temptations are not too low a subject for that blisseful state Indeed this left out would make a blemish in the faire face of Heavens glory Could the damned forget the way they went into hell how oft the Spirit of God was wooing and how far they were overcome by the conviction of it in a word how many turnes and returnes there were in their journey forward and backward what possibilities yea probabilities they had for heaven when on earth were but some hand so kinde as to blot these tormenting passages out of their memories it would ease them wonderfully So were it possible glorified Saints could forget the way wherein they went to glory and the several dangers that interven'd from Satan and their own back-sliding hearts they and their God too would be losers by it I mean in regard of his manifestative glory What is the glory wherein God appears at Zions deliverance those royal garments of salvation that make him so admired of men and Angels but the celebration of all his Attributes according to what every one hath done towards their salvation Now wisdom being that which the creature chiefly glories in and chosen by Satan for his first bait who made Eve believe she should be like God in knowledge and wisdome therefore God to give Satan the more shameful fall gives him leave to use his wits and wiles in tempting and troubling his children in which lies his great advantage over the Saints that so the way to his own Throne where his Wisdome shall at last as well as his mercy sit in
3.8 of Circumcision Every man hath his sword on his thigh because of feare in the night By sword on the thigh they expound Circumcision which they will vainly have given as a charme against evil spirits that affright them in the night But alas the devil cares for none of these no not for an Ordinance of God when by fleshly confidence we make it a spell he hath been often bound with these fetters and chaines as is said of him in the Gospel and the chaines have been plucked asunder by him neither could any man thus tame him He esteems as Job saith of the Leviathan iron as straw and brasse as rotten wood It must be a stronger then the strong man must binde him and none stronger but God the Father of spirits The devil lost indeed by his fall much of his power in relation to that holy and happy estate in which he was created but not his natural abilities he is an Angel still and hath an Angels power Thirdly the number of devils addes to their power What lighter then the sand yet number makes it weighty what creature lesse then lice yet what plague greater to the Egyptians How formidable then must devils be who are both for nature so mighty and for number such a multitude there are devils enough to beleaguer the whole earth not a place under heaven where Satan hath not his troops not a person without some of these cursed spirits haunting and watching him where-ever he goes yea for some special service he can send a legion to keep garrison in one single person as Mark 5. and if so many can be spared to attend one to what a number would the muster-rolle of Satans whole army amount if known And now tell me if we are not like to finde our march difficult to heaven if ever we mean to go thither that are to passe through the very quarters of this multitude who are scattered over the face of all the earth When armies are disbanded and the roads full of debautch't souldiers wandering up and down it 's dangerous travelling we heare then of murders and robberies from all quarters These powers of hell are that party of Angels who for their mutiny and disobedience were cashier'd heaven and thrust out of that glorious host and ever since they have stragled here below endeavouring to do mischief to the children of men especially travelling in heavens road Fourthly their unity and order makes their number formidable We cannot say there is love among them that heavenly fire cannot live in a devils bosome yet there is unity and order as to this they are all agreed in their designe against God and man so their unity and consent is knit together by the ligaments not of love but of hatred and policy Hatred against God and his children which they are filled with and policy which tells them that if they agree not in their designe their Kingdome cannot stand And how true they are to this wicked brotherhood our Saviour gives a faire testimony when he saith Satan fights not against Satan Did you ever heare of any mutiny in the devils army or that any of those Apostate Angels did freely yield up one soule to Christ They are many and yet but one spirit of wickednesse in them all My name said the devils not our name is legion The devil is call'd the Leviathan Isa 27.1 The Lord with his strong sword shall punish Leviathan from their cleaving together of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compact or joyned together used for the Whale Jeb 4. whose strength lies in his scales which are so knit that he is as it were covered with armour Thus these cursed spirits do accord in their machinations and labour to bring their instruments into the same league with them not contented with their bare obedience but where they can obtain it do require an expresse oath of their servants to be true to them as in witches Fifthly the mighty works that are attributed to these evil spirits in Scripture declare their power and these either respect the elementary sensible or intellectual part of the world The Elementary what dreadful effects this Prince of the power of the aire is able to produce on that see in the Word he cannot indeed make the least breath of aire drop of water or spark of fire but he can if let loose as Reverend Master Caryl saith on Job 1. go to Gods store-house and make use of these in such a sort as no man can stand before him he can hurle the sea into such a commotion that the depths shall boile like a pot and disturb the aire into stormes and tempests as if heaven and earth would meet Jobs children were buried in the ruines of their house by a puffe of his mouth yea he can go to Gods magazine as the former Author saith and let off the great ordnance of heaven causing such dreadful thunder and lightning as shall not only affright but do real execution and that in a more dreadful way then in the ordinary course of nature If mans Art can so sublimate nature as we see in the invention of powder that hath such a strange force much more able is he to draw forth its power Again over the sensitive world his power is great not only the beasts as in the herd of swine hurried by him into the deep but over the bodies of men also as in Iob whose sore boiles were not the breakings out of a distempered nature but the print of Satans sangs on his flesh doing that suddenly which in nature would have required more time to gather and ripen and the demoniacks in the Gospel grievously vexed and tormented by him But this the devil counts small game his great spite is at the soules of men which I call the Intellectual world his cruelty to the body is for the soules sake As Christs pity to the bodies of men when on earth healing their diseases was in a subserviency to the good of their soules bribing them with those mercies suitable to their carnal desires that they might more willingly receiv mercies for their souls from that hand which was so kind to their bodies as we give children somthing that pleaseth them to perswade them to do something that pleaseth them not go to school learn their book so the devil who is cruel as Christ is meek and wisheth good neither to body nor soule yet shewes his cruelty to the body but on a design against the soule knowing well that the soule is soon discomposed by the perturbation of the other the soule cannot but lightly heare and so have its peace and rest broken by the groanes and complaints of the body under whose very roof it dwells and then it is not strange if as for want of sleep the tongue talk idly so the soule should break out into some sinful carriage which is the bottom of the devils plot on a Saint And as for other poor silly soules he gaines little
while the Saint goes in his rags Princes are not more careful to oblige their Courtiers with pensions and preferments then the devil is to gratifie his followers He hath his rewards also All this will I give thee Am not I able to promote thee saith Balak to Balaam O 't is strange and yet not strange considering the degeneracy of mans nature to see how Satan carries sinners after him with this golden hook Let him but present such a bait as honour pelfe or pleasure and their hearts skip after it as a dog would at a crust he makes them sin for a morsel of bread O the naughty heart of man loves the wages of unrighteousnesse which the devil promiseth so dearly that it feares not the dreadful wages which the great God threatens As sometimes you shall see a Spaniel so greedy of a bone that he 'll leap into the very river for it if you throw it thither and by that time he comes with much ado thither 't is sunk and he gets nothing but a mouth-full of water for his pains Thus sinners will after their desired pleasures honours and profits swimming through the very threatenings of the Word to them and sometimes they lose even what they gaped for here Thus God kept Balaam as Balak told him from honour Numb 24.11 But however they speed here they are sure to lose themselves everlastingly without repentance They that are resolved they will have these things are the men that fall into the devils snare and are led into those foolish and hurtful lusts which will drown them in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6.9 O poor sinners were it not wisdom before you truck with the devil to enquire what title he can give you to these goodly vanities will he settle them as a free estate upon you can he secure your bargain and keep you from suits of law or is he able to put two lives into the purchase that when you die you may not be left destitute in another world Alas poor wretches you shall ere long see what a cheat he hath put on you from whom you are like to have nought but Caveat emptor Let the buyer look to that yea this great Prince that is so brag to tell what he will give you must down himself and a sad Prince must needs make a sad Court O what howling will there then be of Satan and his vassals together O but saith the sinner the pleasures and honours sin and Satan offer are present and that which Christ promiseth we must stay for This indeed is that which takes most Demas saith Paul forsook me having loved this present world 2 Tim. 4.10 'T is present indeed sinners for you cannot say it will be yours the next moment your present felicity is going and the Saints though future is coming never to go and who for a gulpe of pottage and sensual enjoyments at present would part with a reversion of such a Kingdom except thou art of his minde who thought he had nothing but what he had swallowed down his throat Haec habeo quae edi quaeque exaturata libido Hausit which Cicero could say was more fit to be writ on an oxes grave then a mans Vile wretch that thinkest 't is not better to deale with God for time then the devil for ready pay Tertullian wonders at the folly of the Romanes ambition who would endure all manner of hardship in field and fight for no other thing but to obtain at last the honour to be Consul which he calls unius anni volaticum gaudium a joy that flies away at the years end But O what desperate madnesse is it of sinners then not to endure a little hardship here but entaile on themselves the eternal wrath of God hereafter for the short feast and running banquet their lusts entertain them here withal which often is not gaudium unius horae a joy that lasts an houre Vse 2 Secondly let this encourage thee O Christian in thy conflict with Satan the skirmish may be sharp but it cannot be long Let him tempt thee and his wicked instruments trounce thee 't is but a little while and thou shalt be rid of both their evill neighbourhoods The cloud while it drops is rolling over thy head and then comes faire weather an eternal Sunshine of glory Canst thou not watch with Christ one houre or two keep the field a few dayes if yield thou art undone for ever persevere but while the battel is over and thine enemy shall never rally more bid faith look through the Key-hole of the promise and tell thee what it sees there laid up for him that overcomes bid it listen and tell thee whether it cannot hear the shout of those crowned Saints as of those that are dividing the spoile and receiving the reward of all their services and sufferings here on earth and doest thou stand on the other side afraid to wet thy foot with those sufferings and temptations which like a little plash of water run between thee and glory SECT II. Secondly the devils Empire is confined to place as well as time he is the Ruler of this lower world not of the heavenly The highest the devil can go is the aire call'd the Prince thereof as being the utmost marches of his Empire he hath nothing to do with the upper world Heaven feares no devil and therefore its gates stand alwayes open never durst this fiend look into that holy place since he was first expell'd but rangeth to and fro here below as a vagabond creature excommunicated the presence of God doing what mischief he can to Saints in their way to heaven but is not this matter of great joy that Satan hath no power there where the Saints happinesse lies What hast thou Christian which thou needest value that is not there Thy Christ is there and if thou lovest him thy heart also which lives in the bosome of its beloved Thy friends and kindred in Christ are there or expected with whom thou shalt have a merry meeting in thy Fathers house notwithstanding the snare on Tabor the plots of Satan which lie in the way O friends get a title to that Kingdome and you are above the flight of this Kite This made Job a happy man indeed who when the devil had plundered him to his skin and worried him almost out of that too could then vouch Christ in the face of death and devils to be his Redeemer whom he should with those eyes that now stood full with brinish teares behold and that for himself as his own portion It is sad with him indeed who is robbed of all he is worth at once but this can never be said of a Saint The devil took away Jobs purse as I may say which put him into some straits but he had a God in Heaven that put him into stock again Some spending money thou hast at present in thy purse in the activity of thy faith the evidence of thy son-ship and comfort
should use him more then themselves And 't is observable that the lusting for flesh broke out among the mixt multitude and baser sort of people Numb 11.4 5. but this of pride and envie took fire in the bosomes of the most eminent for place and Piety O what need then have we poor creatures to watch our hearts when we see such precious servants of God led into temptation The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy James 4.5 Our corrupt nature is ever putting on to this sin 'T is as hard to keep our hearts and this sin asunder as it is to hinder two lovers from meeting together Thatch is not more ready to be fired with every flash of lightening then the heart to be kindled at the shining forth of any excelling gift or grace in another It was one of the first windows that corrupt nature look't out at a sin that shed the first blood Cains envy hatcht Abels murder Now if ever thou meanest to get the mastery of this sin First call in help from heaven No sooner hath the Apostle set forth how big and teeming full the heart of man is with envy but he shews where a fountain of grace is infinitely exceeding that of lust The Spirit within us lusteth to envie but he giveth more grace v. 5. And therefore sit not down tamely under this sin it is not unconquerable God can give thee more grace then thou hast sin more humility then thou hast pride Be but so humble as cordially to beg his grace and thou shalt not be so proud as wickedly to envy his gifts or grace in others Secondly make this sin as black and ugly as thou canst possibly to thy thought that when it is presented to thee thou mayest abhor it the more Indeed there needs no more then its own face wouldest thou look wishly on it to make thee out of love with it For first this envying of others gifts casts great contempt upon God and that more wayes then one First when thou enviest the gifts of thy brethren thou takest upon thee to teach God what he shall give and to whom as if the great God should take counsel or ask leave of thee before he dispenseth his gifts and darest thou stand to thy own envious thoughts with this interpretation such a one thou findest Christ himself give Matth. 20.15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own as if Christ had said what hath any to do to cavil at my disposure of what is not theirs but mine to give Secondly thou malignest the goodnesse of God It troubles thee it seems that God hath a heart to do good to any besides thy selfe thy eye is evil because his is good Wouldest not thou have God be good you had as good speak out and say you would not have him God he can assoon cease to be God as to be good Thirdly thou art an enemy to the glory of God as thou defacest that which should set it forth Every gift is a ray of divine excellency and as all the beams declare the glory of the Sunne so all the gifts God imparts declare the glory of God Now envy labours to deface and fully the representations of God it hath ever something to disparage the excellency of another withal God shewed Miriam her sin by her punishment she went to bespatter Moses that shone so eminently with the gifts and graces of God and God spits in her sace Numb 12. yea fills her all over with a noisome scab Doest thou cordially wish well to the honour of God why then hangest thou thy head and doest not rather rejoyce to see him glorified by the gifts of others Could a Heathen take it so well when himself was passed by and others chosen to places of honour and government that he said he was glad his City could finde so many more worthy then himself and shall a Christian repine that any are found fit to honour God besides himself Secondly thou wrongest thy brother as thou sinnest against the law of love which obligeth thee to rejoyce in his good as thy owne yea to prefer him in honour before thy self Thou canst not love and envy the same person envy is as contrary to love as the hectical feavourish fire in the body is to the kindly heat of nature Charity envieth not 1 Cor. 13. How can it when it lives where it loves and when thou ceasest to love thou beginnest to hate and kill him and doest not thou tremble to be found a murderer at last Thirdly thou consultest worst of all for thy self God is out of thy reach what thou spittest against heaven thou art sure to have fall on thy own face at last and thy brother whom thou enviest God stands bound to defend him against thy envy because he is maligned for what he hath of God in him Thus did God plead Josephs cause against his envious brethren and Davids against wicked Saul Thy selfe only hast real hurt First thou deprivest thy self of what thou mightest reap from the gifts of others That old saying is true Tolle invidiam mea tua sunt tua mea What thou hast is mine and what I have thine when envy is gone Whereas now like the leach which they say draws out the worst blood thou suckest nothing but what swells thy minde with discontent and is after vomited out in strife and contention O what a sad thing is it that one should go from a precious Sermon a sweet prayer and bring nothing away but a grudge against the instrument God used as we see in the Pharisees and others at Christs preaching Secondly thou robbest thy self of the joy of thy life He that is cruel troubles his own flesh Prov. 11.17 The envious man doth it to purpose he sticks the honour and esteem of others as thornes in his own heart he cannot think of them without paine and anguish and he must needs pine that is ever in paine Thirdly thou throwest thy self into the mouth of temptation thou needest give the devil no greater advantage it is a stock any sin almost will grow upon What will not the Patriarchs do to rid their hands of Joseph whom they envied that very pride which made them disdain the thought of bowing to his sheaf made them stoop far lower even to debase themselves as low as hell and be the devils instruments to sell their dear brother into slavery which might have been worse to him if God had not provided otherwise then if they had slaâ—n him on the place What an impotent minde and cruel did Saul shew against David when once envy had envenomed his heart from that day which he heard David preferr'd in the womens Songs above himself he could never get that sound out of his head but did ever after devote this innocent man to death in his thoughts who had done him no other wrong but in being an instrument to keep the crown on his head by the
of his own unworthinesse and great unrighteousnesse tell him of a pardon alas he is so wrapt up with the thoughts of his own vilenesse that you cannot fasten it upon him What will God ever take such a toad as he is into his bosome discount so many great abominations at once and receive him into his favour that hath been so long in rebellious armes against him he cannot beleeve it no though he heares what Christ hath done and suffered for sin he refuseth to be comforted Little doth the soule think what a bitter root such thoughts spring from thou thinkest thou doest well thus to declaim against thy self and aggravate thy sins indeed thou canst not paint them black enough or entertain too low and base thoughts of thy selfe for them But what wrong hath God and Christ done thee that thou shouldest so unworthily reflect upon the mercy of the one and merit of the other Mayest thou not do this and be tender of the good Name of God also Is there no way to shew thy sense of thy sin except thou asperse thy Saviour Canst thou not charge thy self but thou must condemn God and put Christ and his blood to shame before Satan who triumphs more in this then all thy other sins In a word though thou like a wretch hast undone thy self and damned thy soule by thy sins yet art thou not willing God should have the glory of pardoning them and Christ the honour of procuring the same or art thou like him in the Gospel Luke 16.3 who could not dig and to beg was ashamed Thou canst not earne heaven by thy own righteousnesse and is thy spirit so stout that thou wilt not beg it for Christs sake yea take it at Gods hands who in the Gospel comes a begging to thee and beseecheth thee to be reconciled to him Ah soule who would ever have thought there could have lien such pride under such a modest veile and yet none like it 'T is horrible pride for a beggar to starve rather then take an alms at a rich mans hands a malefactour rather to choose his halter then a pardon from his gracious Princes hand but here is one infinitely surpassing both a soule pining and perishing in sin and yet rejecting the mercy of God and the helpng hand of Christ to save him Though Abigail did not think her self worthy to be Davids wife yet she thought David was worthy of her and therefore she humbly accepted his offer and makes haste to go with the messengers That 's the sweet frame of heart indeed to lie low in the sense of your own vilenesse yet to believe to renounce all conceit of worthinesse in our selves yet not therefore to renounce all hope of mercy but the more speedily to make haste to Christ that wooes us All the pride and unmannerlinesse lies in making Christ stay for us who bids his messengers invite poor sinners to come and tell them all things are ready But may be thou wilt say still it is not pride that keeps thee off but thou canst not believe that ever God will entertain such as thou art Truly thou mendest the matter but little with this either thou keepest some lust in thy heart which thou wilt not part with to obtain the benefit of the promise and then thou art a notorious hypocrite who under such an out-cry for thy sins canst drive a secret trade with hell at the same time or if not so thou doest discover the more pride in that thou darest stand out when thou hast nothing to oppose against the many plain and clear promises of the Gospel but thy peremptory unbelief God bids the wicked forsake his wayes and turne to him and he will abundantly pardon him but thou sayest thou canst not believe this for thy own self Now who speaks the truth One of you two must be the liar either thou must take it with shame to thy self for what thou hast said against God and his promise and that is thy best course or thou must proudly yea blasphemously cast it upon God as every unbeliever doth 1 John 5.10 Nay thou makest him forsworn for God to give poor sinners the greater security in flying for refuge to Christ who is that hope set before them Heb. 6.17 18. hath sworn they should have strong consolation O beatos quorum causâ Deus jurat O miserrimos si nec juranti credamus Tertul. de poenit O happy we for whose sake God puts himself under an oath but O miserable we who will not believe God no not when he sweares Secondly when the soul hath shot the great gulfe and got into a slate of peace and life by closing with Christ yet this mannerly pride Satan makes use of in the Christians daily course of duty and obedience to disturb him and hinder his peace and comfort O how unchearfully yea joylesly do many precious soules passe their dayes If you enquire what is the cause you shall finde all their joy runs out at the crannies of their imperfect duties and weak graces they cannot pray as they would and walk as they desire with evennesse and constancy they see how short they fall of the holy rule in the Word and the patterne which others more eminent in grace do set before them and this though it doth not make them throw the Promises away and quite renounce all hope in Christ yet it begets many sad fears and suspitions yea makes them sit at the feast Christ hath provided and not know whether they may eat or not In a word as it robs them of their joy so Christ of that glory which he should receive from their rejoycing in him I do not say Christian thou oughtest not to mourn for those defects thou findest in thy graces and duties nay thou couldest not approve thy self to be sincere if thou didst not A gracious heart seeing how far short his renewed state forthe present falls of mans primitive holinesse by Creation cannot but weep and mourn as the Jewes to behold the second Temple yet Christian even while the tears are in thy eyes for thy imperfect graces for a soule riseth with his grave-clothes on thou shouldest rejoyce yea triumph over all these thy defects by faith in Christ in whom thou art compleat Col. 1.10 while imperfect in thy selfe Christs presence in the second Temple which the first had not made it though comparatively mean more glorious then the first Hag. 2.9 how much more doth his presence in this spiritual temple of a gracious heart imputing his righteousnesse to cover all its uncomelinesse make the soule glorious above man at first This is a garment for which as Christ saith of the lilie we neither spin nor toile yet Adam in all his created royalty was not so clad as the weakest believer is with this on his soul Now Christian consider well what thou doest while thou sittest languishing under the sense of thy own weaknesses and refusest to rejoyce in Christ and live comfortably
a Tradesman out of his shop now and then but he is as a fish out of the water never in his element till he be in his calling again Thus when the Christian is about the world and the worldling about heavenly matters both are men out of their way not right girt till they get into their employment again Now this heavenly trade is that which Satan doth in an especial manner labour to stop Could the Christian enjoy but a free trade with heaven a few years without molestation he would soon grow a rich man too rich indeed for earth but what with losses sustained by the hands of this Pyrate Satan and also the wrong he receives by the treachery of some in his own bosome that like unfaithful servants hold correspondence with this robber he is kept but low in this life and much of his gaines are lost Now the Christians heavenly trade lies either within doors or abroad he can be free in neither Satan is at his heels in both First within doores This I may call his home-trade which is spent in secret between God and his own soule here the Christian drives an unknown trade he is at heaven and home again richly laden in his thoughts with heavenly meditations before the world knows where he hath been Every creature he sees is a text for his heart to raise some spiritual matter and observations from Every Sermon he heares cuts him out work to make up and enlarge upon when he gets alone Every Providence is as winde to his sailes and sets his heart a moving in some heavenly affection or other suitable to the occasion One while he is wrap't up with joy in the consideration of mercy another while melted into godly sorrow from the sense of his sins Sometimes exalting God in his praises anon abusing himself before God for his own vilenesse One while he is at the breast of the Covenant milking out the consolations of the Promises at another time working his heart into a holy awe and feare of the threatenings Thus the Christian walks aloft while the base worldling is licking the dust below One of these heavenly pearles which the Christian trades for is more worth then the worldling gets with all his sweat and travel in his whole life The Christians feet stand where other mens heads are he treads on the Moon and is clothed with the Sun he looks down on earthly men as one from a high hill doth upon those that live in some fenne or moore and sees them buried in a fog of carnal pleasures and profits while he breaths in a pure heavenly aire but yet not so high as to be free from all stormes and tempests many a sad gust he hath from sin and Satan without What else mean those sad complaints and groans which come from the children of God that their hearts are so dead and dull their thoughts so roving and unfixt in duty yea many times so wicked and filthy that they dare hardly tell what they are for feare of staining their own lips and offending the eares of others by naming them Surely the Christian findes it in his heart to will and desire he could meditate pray heare and live after another sort then this doth he not yes I durst be his surety he doth But so long as there is a devil tempts and we continue within his walk it will be thus more or lesse as fast as we labour to clear the spring of our hearts he will be labouring to royle or stop it again so that we have two works to do at once to performe a duty and watch him that opposeth us trowel and sword both in our hands They had need work hard indeed who have others continually endeavouring to pull down as they are labouring to rear up the building Secondly that part of the Christians trade which lies abroad is heavenly also Take a Christian in his relations calling neighbourhood he is a heavenly trader in all the great businesse of his life is to be doing or receiving some good that company is not for him that will neither give nor take this What should a Merchant be where there is no buying nor selling Every one labours as his calling is to seat himself where trade is quickest and he is likest to have most takings The Christian where he may choose takes such in relations near to himself husband wife servants as may suite with his heavenly trade and not such as will be a pull-back to him he falls in with the holiest persons as his dearest acquaintance if there be a Saint in the town where he lives he 'll finde him out and this shall be the man he will consort with and in his conversation with these and all else his chief work is for heaven his heavenly principle within inclines him to it Now this alarums hell What not contented to go to heaven himself but by his holy example gracious speeches sweet counsels seasonable reproofs will he be trading with others and labour to carry them along with him also This brings the Lion fell and mad out of his den such to be sure shall finde the devil in their way to oppose them I would have come saith Paul but Sacan hindered me He that will vouch God and let it appear by the tenure of his conversation that he trades for him shall have enemies enough if the devil can help him to such Thirdly the Christians hopes are all heavenly he lots not upon any thing the world hath to give him Indeed he would think himself the most miserable man of all others if here were all he could make of his Religion No 't is heaven and eternal life that he expects and though he be so poor as not to be able to make a Will of a groat yet he counts himself a greater heire then if he were childe to the greatest Prince on earth This inheritance he sees by faith and can rejoyce in the hope of the glory which it will bring him The masquery and cheating glory of the great ones of this world moves him not to envy their fanciful pomp but when on the dunghil himself he can forget his own present sorrowes to pity them in all their bravery knowing that within a few dayes the crosse will be off his back and the crowns off their heads together their portion will be spent when he shall be to receive all his These things entertain him with such joy that they will not suffer him to acknowledge himself miserable when others think him and the devil tells him he is such This this torments the very soule of the devil to see the Christian under saile for heaven fill'd with the sweet hope of his joyful entertainment when he comes there and therefore he raiseth what stormes and tempests he can either to hinder his arrival in that blessed Port which he most desires and doth not wholly despair of or at least to make it a troublesome winter-voyage such as
Had we to do with an enemy that came only to plunder us of earthly trifles would honours estates and what this world affords us stay his stomack it might suffer a debate in a soule that hath hopes of heaven whether it were worth fighting to keep this lumber but Christ and heaven these sure are too precious to part withal upon any termes Ask the Kingdom for him also said Solomon to Bath-sheba when she begg'd Abishag for Adonijah What can the devil leave thee worth if he deprive thee of these and yet I confesse I have heard of one that wished God would let him alone and not take him from what he had here Vile Brute the voice of a swine and not a man that could chuse to wallow in the dung and ordure of his carnal pleasures and wish himself for ever shut up with his swill in the hogs coat of this dunghil earth rather then leave these to dwell in Heavens Palace and be admitted to no meaner pleasures then what God himself with his Saints enjoy It were even just if God gave such brutes as these a swines face to their swinish hearts But alas how few then should we meet that would have the countenance of a man the greatest part of the world even all that are carnal and worldly being of the same minde though not so impudent as that wretch to speak what they think The lives of men tell plain enough that they say in their hearts it is good being here that they wish they could build Tabernacles on earth for all the mansions that are prepared in heaven The transgression of the wicked said in Davids heart that the feare of God was not before them Psal 36.1 and may not the worldlinesse of a muck-worm say in the heart of any rational man that heaven and heavenly excellencies are not before their eyes or thoughts O what a deep silence is there concerning these in the conversations of men Heaven is such a stranger to the most that very few are heard to enquire the way thither or so much as ask the question in earnest what they shall do to be saved The most expresse no more desires of attaining heaven then those blessed souls now in heaven do of coming again to dwell on earth Alas their heads are full of other projects they are either as Israel scatter'd over the face of the earth to gather straw or busied in picking that straw they have gathered labouring to get the world or pleasing themselves with what they have got So that it is no more then needs to use some arguments to call men off the world to the pursuit of heaven and what is heavenly First for earthly things it is not necessary that thou hast them that is necessary which cannot be supplied per vicarium with somewhat besides it self Now there is no such earthly enjoyment but may be so supplied as to make its room more desirable then its company In Heaven there shall be light and no Sun a rich feast and yet no meat glorious robes and yet no cloathes thete shall want nothing and yet none of this worldly glory be found there yea even while we are here they may be recompenced thou mayest be under infirmities of body and yet better then if thou hadst health The Inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therin shall be forgiven their iniquiâ—y Isa 33.34 Thou mayest misse of worldly honour and obtain with those Worthies of Christ Heb. 11. a good report by faith and that is a name better then of the great ones of the earth thou mayest be poor in the world and yet rich in grace and Godlinesse with content is great gaine In a word if thou partest with thy temporal life and findest an eternal what doest thou lose by the change but heaven and heavenly things are such as cannot be recompenced with any other Thou hast a heavenly soul in thy bosome lose that and where canst thou have another There is but one heaven misse that and where can you take up your lodging but in hell One Christ that can lead you thither reject him and there remains no more sacrifice for sinne O that men would think on these things Go sinner to the world and see what it can afford you in lieu of these may be it will offer to entertain you with its pleasures and delights O poor reward for the losse of Christ and heaven Is this all thou canst get doth Satan rob thee of heaven and happinesse and only give thee this posie to smell on as thou art going to thy execution will these quench hell-fire or so much as cool those flames thou art falling into who but those that have foredone their understandings would take these toyes and new nothings for Christ and heaven while Satan is pleasing your fancies with these rattles and bables his hand is in your treasure robbing you of that which is only necessary 'T is more necessary to be saved then to be better not to be then to have a being in hell Secondly earthly things are such as it is a great uncertainty whether with all our labour we can have them or not The world though so many thousand years old hath not learn't the Merchant such a method of trading as that from it he may infallibly conclude he shall at last get an estate by his trade nor the Courtier such rules of comporting himself to the humour of his Prince as to assure him he shall rise They are but few that carry away the prize in the worlds lottery the greater number have only their labour for their paines and a sorrowful remembrance left them of their egregious folly to be led such a wilde goose chase after that which hath deceived them at last But now for heaven and the things of heaven there is such a clear and certain rule laid down that if we will but take the counsel of the Word we can neither mistake the way nor in that way miscarry of the end As many as walk by this rule peace be upon them and the whole Israel of God There are some indeed who run and yet obtain not this prize that seek find not knock and find the door shut upon them but it is because they do it either not in the right manner or in the right season Some would have heaven but if God save them he must save their sins also for they do not mean to part with them and how heaven can hold God and such company together judge you As they come in at one door Christ and all those holy spirits with him would run out at the other Ungratful wretches that will not come to this glorious feast unlesse they may bring that with them which would disturb rhe joy of that blisseful state and offend all the guests that sit at the Table with them yea drive God out of his own mansion-house A second sort would have heaven but like him in Ruth
walk in the Name of our God and what is it to walk in the Name of our God but to fight under the banner of his Gospel wherein his Name is displayed by giving an eternal defiance to sin and Satan If a Captain had not such a tie on his souldiers he might have them to seek when the day of battel comes therefore Christ tells us upon what termes he will enroll us among his disciples If any man will be my disciple let him deny himself and take up his Crosse and follow me He will not entertain us till we resign up our selves freely to his dispose that there may be no disputing with his commands afterwards but as one under his authority go and come at his word Secondly perseverance is necessary because our enemy perseveres to oppose us There is no truce in the devils heart no cessation of armes in our enemies camp If an enemy continue to assault a City and they within cease to resist it is easie to tell what will follow The Prophet that was sent to Bethel did his errand well withstood Jeroboams temptation but in his way home was drawn aside by the old Prophet and at last slain by a Lion Thus many flie from one temptation but not persevering are vanquish't by another those that at one time escape his sword at another time are slain by it Joash was hopeful when young but it lasted not long Yea many precious servants of God not making such vigorous resistance in their last dayes as in their first have fallen foully as we see in Solomon Asa and others Indeed it is hard when a line is drawn to a great length to keep it so streight that it slacken not and to hold a thing long in our hand and not to have a numbnesse grow in our fingers so as to remit of our strength therefore we are bid so often to hold fast the Profession of our faith but when we see an enemy gaping to catch us when we fall me thinks this should quicken us the more to it Thirdly because the promise of life and glory is setled upon the persevering soule the crown stands at the Goal he hath it that comes to the end of the race To him that overcomes will I give not in praelio but in bello not in a particular skirmish but in the whole war Ye have need of patience that after ye have done the whole Will of God ye might receive the promise Heb. 10.36 There is a remarkable accent on that henceforth which Paul mentions 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousnesse Why was it not laid up before yes but having persevered and come near the Goale being within sight of home ready to die he takes now surer hold of the promise Indeed in this sense it is that a gracious soul is nearer its salvation after every victory then it was before because he approacheth nearer to the end of his race which is the time promised for the receiving of the promised salvation Then and not till then the Garland drops upon his head Here we may take up a sad lamentation in respect of the many Apostate Professours of our dayes Never was this spiritual falling sicknesse more rise O how many are sick of it at present and not a few fallen asleep by it These times of warre and confusion have not made so many broken Merchants as broken Professours where is the Congregation that cannot shew some who have out-lived their Profession not unlike the silk-worm which they say after all her spinning works her selfe out of her bottome and becomes at last a common flie Are there not many whose forwardnesse in Religion we have stood gazing on with admiration as the disciples on the Temple ready to say one to another as they to Christ See what manner of stones these are what polished gifts and shining graces are here and now not one stone left upon another O did you ever think that they who went in so goodly array towards heaven in communion with you would after that face about and run over to the devils side turn Blasphemers Worldlings and Atheists as some have done O what a sad change is here It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousnesse then after they have known it to turne from the holy Commandment delivered unto them 2 Pet. 2.21 Better never to have walk't a step towards heaven then to put such a scorn and reproach upon the wayes of God Comparationem videtur egisse qui utrumquo cognoverit judicato pronunciûsse eum meliorem cujus se rursu◠esse maluerit Tertul. de poenit Such a one who hath known both what a service Satans is and what Gods is then to revolt from God to the devil seems to have compared one with the other and as the result of his mature thoughts to pronounce the devils which he chooseth better then Gods which he leaveth And how is it possible that any can sin upon a higher guilt and go to hell under a greater load of wrath These are they which God loaths He that hates putting away disdains much more to be himself thus put away If any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 The Apostate is said to tread upon the Son of God Heb. 10.29 as if he were no better then the dirt under his feet Well he shall have treading for treading God himself will set his foot upon him Psal 119.118 Thou hast troden down all that erre from thy statutes and who think you will be weary soonest he that is under foot beares the weight of the whole man upon him To be under the foot of God is to lie under the whole weight of Gods wrath O pity and pray for such forlorn souls they are objects of the one and subjects of the other though they are fallen low yet not into hell now and then we see an Eutichus raised that hath fallen from such a height And you that stand take heed lest you fall SECT IV. Secondly A soul void of divine armour cannot persevere What this divine armour is I have shewen and the Apostle here doth in the several pieces of it The sanctifying graces of Gods Spirit are this Armour One that hath not these wrought in him will never hold out to passe all the stages of this Christian race to fight all the battels that are to be fought before victory is to be had Common gifts of the Spirit such as illumination conviction sudden pangs and flushing heats of affection may carry out the creature for a while with a goodly appearance of zeal for God and forwardnesse in Profession but the strength these afford is soon spent Johns hearers mentioned John 5.35 got some light and heat by sitting under his burning Ministery but how long did it last Ye were willing to rejoyce for a season They were very
own Thus do thou consider what thou standest engaged to thy worldly credit profit slavish feare of God and selfish desire of happinesse and when thou hast allowed for all these see then what remaines of thy feare of God love to God c. if nothing thou art nought if any the lesse there be the weaker Christian thou art and when thou comest to be tried in Gods fire thou wilt suffer losse of all the other which as hay and stubble will be burnt up SECT V. Every soule clad with this Armour of God shall stand and persevere Or thus true grace can never be vanquish't The Christian is borne a Conquerour the gates of hell shall nor prevail against him He that is borne of God overcometh the world 1 John 5.4 Mark from whence the victory is dated even from his birth There is victory sowen in his new nature even that seed of God which will keep him from being swallowed up by sin or Satan As Christ rose never to die more so doth he raise soules from the grave of sin never to come under the power of spiritual death more These holy ones of God cannot see corruption Hence he that believes is said in the present tense to have eternal life At the Law that came foure hundred years after could not make void the promise made to Abraham so nothing that intervenes can hinder the accomplishing of that promise of eternal life which was given and passed to Christ in their behalf before the foundation of the world If a Saint could any way miscarry and fall short of this eternal life it must be from one of these three causes 1. Because God may forsake the Christian and withdraw his grace and help from him Or 2. Because the believer may forsake God Or lastly because Satan may pluck him out of the hands of God A fourth I know not Now none of these can be First God can never forsake the Christian Some unadvised speeches have drop't from tempted soules discovering some fears of Gods casting them off but they have been confuted and have eaten their words with shame as we see in Job and David O what admirable security hath the great God given his children in this particular First in Promises He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Five negatives in that promise as so many seals to ratifie it to our faith he assures us there never did or can so much as arise a repenting thought in his heart concerning the purposes of his love and special grace towards his children Rom. 11.29 The gifts and calling of God are without repentance even the believers sin against him their froward carriage stirs not up thoughts of casting them off but of reducing them For the iniquity of this covetousnesse I was wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his wayes and will heal them Isa 57.27 28. The water of the Saints failings cast on the fire of Gods love cannot quench it Whom he loves he loves to the end Secondly God to give further weight and credit to our unbelieving and mis-giving hearts seals his promise with an oath See Isa 54.9 10. With everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer this is as the waters of Noah unto me for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should not return over the earth so have I sworn that I will not be wroth with thee Yea he goes on and tells them The monntaines shall depart meaning at the end of the world when the whole frame of the heavens and earth shall be dissolv'd but his kindnesse shall not depart neither shall his Covenant of peace be removed Now lest any should think this was some charter belonging to the Jewes alone we finde it v. 17. setled on every servant of God as his portion This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousnesse is of me saith the Lord. And surely God that is so careful to make his childrens inheritance sure to them will con them little thanks who busie their wits to invalid and weaken his conveyances yea disprove his will if they had taken a bribe they could not plead Satans cause better Thirdly in the actual fulfilling these promises which he hath made to beleevers to Christ their Attourney As God before the world began gave a promise of eternal life to Christ for them so now hath he given actual possession of that glorious place to Christ as their Advocate and Attourney where that eternal life shall be enjoyed by them for as he came upon our errand from heaven so thither he returned again to take and hold possession of that inheritance which God had of old promised and he in one summe at his death had paid for And now what ground of feare can there be in the believers heart concerning Gods love standiog firme to him when he sees the whole Covenant performed already to Christ for him whom God hath not only called to sanctified for and upheld in the great work he was to finish for us but also justified in his Resurrection and Jayle-delivery and received him into heaven there to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high by which he hath not only possession for us but full power to give it unto all believers A second occasion of feare to the believer that he shall not persevere may be taken from himself He has many sad feares and tremblings of heart that he shall at last forsake God The journey is long to heaven and his grace weak O saith he is it not possible that this little grace should faile and I fall short at last of glory Now here there is such provision made in the Covenant as scatters this cloud also First the Spirit of God is given on purpose to prevent this Christ left his mother with John but his Saints with his Spirit to tutour and keep them that they should not lose themselves in their journey to heaven O how sweet is that place Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them He doth not say they shall have his Spirit if they will walk in his statutes no his Spirit shall cause them to do it But may be thou art afraid thou mayest grieve him and so he in anger leave thee and thou perish for want of his help and counsel Answ The Spirit of God is indeed sensible of unkindnesse and upon a Saints sin may withdraw in regard of present assistance but never in regard of his care as a mother may let her froward childe go alone till it get a knock that may make it cry to be taken up again into her armes but still her eye is on it that it shall not fall into mischief The Spirit withdrew from Samson and he fell into the
commonly made of the Christians wood First he tempts to sin and then for it Satan is but a creature and cannot work without tooles he can indeed make much of a little but not any thing of nothing as we see in his assaulting of Christ where he troubled himself to little purpose because he came and found nothing in him Though the devil throws the stone yet 't is the mud in us which royles our comforts 'T was in vaine for the Philistines to fall on Samson till his lock was cut take heed therefore of yielding to his enticing motions these are the stumbling block at which he hopes thou'lt break thy shins and bruise thy conscience which once done let him alone to spin out the cure Indeed a Saints flesh heals not so easily as others drink not of the devils wassel there is poison in the cup his wine is a mocker look not on it as it sparkles in the temptation what thou drinkest down with sweetnesse thou wilt be sure to bring up again as gall and wormwood Above all sins take heed of presumptuous ones thou art not out of the danger of such Sad stories we have of Saints falls and what follows then Take him Jailor saith God Deliver such a one unto Satan and if a Saint be the Prisoner and the devil the Keeper you may guesse how he shall be used O how he will teare and rend thy conscience Though that dreadful Ordinance is not used as it should be in the Church yet Gods Court sits and if he excommunicate a soule from his presence he falls presently into Satans clutches Well if through his subtilty thou hast been overtaken take heed thou stayest not in the devils quarters shake the viper off thy hand ply thee to thy Chirurgeon green wounds cure best but if thou neglectest and the winde get to it thy conscience will soon fester Ahab we read was wounded in battel and was loath to yield to it it is said he was held up in his chariot but he died for it when a soule hath received a wound committed a sin Satan labours to boulster him up with flattering hopes holds him up as it were in his chariot against God what yield for this afraid for a little scratch and lose the spoile of thy future pleasure for this O take heed of listening to such counsel the sooner thou yieldest the fairer quarter thou shalt have Every step in this way sets thee further from thy peace A rent garment is catch't by every naile and the rent made wider Renew therefore thy repentance speedily whereby this breach may be made up and worse prevented which else will befall thee SECT II. 2ly study that grand Gospel-truth of a souls justification before God acquaint thy self with this in all its causes the moving cause the free mercy of God Being justified freely by his grace the meritorious which is the blood of Christ and the instrumental faith with all the sweet priviledges that flow from it An effectual door once open'd to let the soul into this truth would not only spoil the Popes market as Gardner said but the devils also when Satan coms to disquiet the Christians peace for want of a right understanding here he is soon worsted by his enemy as the silly hare which might escape the dogs in some covert or burrough that is at hand but trusting to her heels is by the print of her owne feet and sent which she leaves behinde followed till at last weary and spent she falls into the mouth of them In all that a Christian doth there is a print of sinful infirmity and a sent by which Satan is enabled to trace and pursue him over hedge and ditch this grace and that duty till the soule not able to stand before the accusation of Satan is ready to fall down in despair at his feet whereas here 's a hiding place whither the enemy durst not come the clefts of the rock the hole of the staires which this truth leads unto When Satan chargeth thee for a sinner perhaps thou interposest thy repentance and reformation but soon art beaten out of those works when thou art shewen the sinful mixtures that are in them whereas this truth would choak all his bullets that thou believest on him who hath said Not unto him that worketh but unto him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousnesse Get therefore into this tower of the Gospel-Covenant and rowle this truth as she that stone on the head of Abimelech on the head of Satan SECT III. Thirdly be sure Christian thou keepest the Plains Take heed that Satan coop thee not up in some straits where thou canst neither well fight nor flie Such a trap the Egyptians hoped they had the Israelites in when they cried They are entangled they are entangled There are three kindes of straits wherein he labours to entrap the Christians Nice Questions obscure Scriptures and dark Providences First he labours to puzzle him with nice and scrupulous questions on purpose to retard the work and clog him in his motion that meeting with such intricacies in his Christian course which he cannot easily resolve thereby he may be made either to give over or go on heavily therefore we have particular charge not to trouble the weak heads of young Converts with doubtful disputations Sometimes Satan will be asking the soul how it knowes its election and where he findes one not so fully resolved as to dare to own the same he frames his Argument against such a ones closing with Christ and the promise as if it were presumption to assume that which is the only portion of the Elect before we know our selves of that number Now Christian keep the Plains and thou art safe 'T is plain we are not to make Election a ground for our faith but our faith and calling a medium or argument to prove our Election Election indeed is first in order of divine acting God chooseth before we beleeve yet faith is first in our acting We must believe before we can know we are elected yea by believing we know it The Husbandman knowes 't is Spring by the sprouting of the grasse though he hath no Astrology to know the Position of the Heavens thou mayest know thou art Elect as surely by a work of grace in thee as if thou hadst stood by Gods elbowe when he writ thy name in the book of life It had been presumption for David to have thought he should have been King till Samuel anointed him but then none at all when thou believest first and closest with Christ then is the Spirit of God sent to anoint thee to the Kingdom of Heaven this is that holy oyle which is poured upon none but heires of glory and 't is no presumption to reade what Gods gracious purpose was towards thee of old when he prints those his thoughts and makes them legible in thy effectual calling here thou
doest not go up to heaven and pry into Gods secrets but heaven comes down to thee and reveals them Again he will ask the Christian what was the time of his Conversion Art thou a Christian will he say and dost thou not know when thou commencedst now keep the Plains content thy self with this that thou seest the streams of grace though the time of thy Conversion be like the head of Nylus not to be found God oft comes betimes before grosse sins have deflowered the soule and steals into the creatures bosome without much noise In such a case Satan doth but abuse thee when he sends thee on this errand you may know the Sun is up though you did not observe when it rose Again what will become of thee saith Satan if God should bring thee into such an affliction on trial when thou must burn or turn or when all thy outward estate shall be rent from thee no meal in the barrel no money in the purse darest thou have so good an opinion of thy selfe as to think that thy faith will hold out in such an houre of temptation It thou hast but half an eye Christian thou mayest see what Satan drives at this is an ensnaring question by the feare of future troubles he labours to bring thee into a neglect of thy present duty and indispose thee also for such a stare whenever it falls If a man hath much businesse to do on the morrow 't is his wisdom to discharge his minde thereof when composing to sleep lest the thoughts thereof break his rest and make him the more unfit in the morning The lesse rest the soule hath in God and his promise concerning future events the lesse strength it will finde to beare them when the pinch comes When therefore thou art molested with such feares pacifie thy heart with these three plain Conclusions First every event is the product of Gods Providence not a sparrow much lesse a Saint falls to the ground by poverty sicknesse persecution c. but the hand of God is in it Secondly God hath put in caution he will never leave thee nor forsake thee He that enables thee in one condition will in another God learns his servants their whole trade Grace is an universal principle At the first moment of thy spiritual life suffering grace was infused as well as praying grace Thirdly God is wise to conceale the succours he intends in the several changes of thy life that so he may draw thy heart into an entire dependance on his faithful promise Thus to try the mettal of Abrahams faith he let him go on till his hand was stretch't forth and then he comes to his rescue Christ sends his disciples to sea but stayes behinde himself on a design to try their faith and shew his love Comfort thy self therefore with this though thou seest not thy God in the way yet thou shalt finde him in the end Secondly Satan perplexeth the tender consciences of doubting Christians with obscure Scriptures whose sense lies too deep for their weak and distempered judgements readily to finde out and with these he hampers poor soules exceedingly indeed as melancholy men delight in melancholy walks so doubting soules most frequent such places of Scripture in their musing thoughts as encrease their doubts how many have I known that have look't so long on those difficult places Heb. 6.7 Heb. 10.26 which passe the understanding as a swift stream the eye so that the sense is not perceived without great observation till their heads have turned round and they at last not able to untie the difficulties have fallen down into despairing thoughts and words of their own condition crying out O they have sinned against knowledge of the truth and therefore no mercy remains for them who if they would have refreshed their understandings by looking off these places whose engraving is too curious to be long pored on by a weak eye they might have found that in other Scriptures plainly exprest which would have enabled them as through a glasse more safely to have viewed these Therefore Christian keepe the Plaines thou mayest be sure 't is thine enemy that gives thee such stones to break thy teeth when thy condition calls rather for bread and wine such Scriptures I mean as are most apt to nourish thy faith and cheere thy drooping spirit When thou meetest such plain Scriptures which speak to thy case go over where it is fordable and do not venture beyond thy depth Art thou afraid because thou hast sinned since the knowledge of the truth and therefore no sacrifice remains for thee See David and Peters case how it patterns thine and left upon record that their recovery may be a Key in thine hand to open such places as these mayest thou not safely conclude from these this is not their meaning that none can be saved that sin after knowledge Indeed in both those places it is neither meant of the falls of such as ever had true grace nor of a falling away in some particular acts of sin but of a total universal falling away from the Faith the doctrine of it as well as seeming practice of it Now if the root of the matter were ever in thee other Scriptures will first comfort thee against those particular apostasies into which thou hast relapsed by sweet promises inviting such to return and Precedents of Saints who have had peace spoken to them after such folly and also they will satisfie thee against the other by giving full security to thy faith that thy little grace shall not die being immortal though not in its proper essence because but a creature yet by Covenant as it is a childe of Promise Thirdly Dark Providences From these Satan disputes against Gods love to and grace in a soule First he got a commission to plunder Job of his temporal estate and bereave him of his chilchildren and then labours to make him question his spiritual estate and sonship his wife would have him entertain hard thoughts of God saying Curse God and die and his friends as hard thoughts of himself as if he were an hypocrite and both upon the same mistake as if such an afflicted condition and a gracious state were inconsistent Now Christian keep the Plaines and neither from this charge God foolishly for thine enemy nor thy self as his Reade the saddest Providence with the Comment of the Word and thou canst not make such an harsh interpretation As God can make a streight line with a crooked stick be righteous when he useth wicked instruments so also gracious when he dispenseth harsh Providences Joseph kept his love when he spake roughly to his brethren I do not wonder that the wicked think they have Gods blessing because they are in the warme Sun Alas they are strangers to Gods counsels void of his Spirit and sensual judging of God and his Providence by the report their present feeling makes of them like little children who think every one loves
all his glory I know nothing would have a more powerful yea universal operation upon a Saints spirit then the frequent and spiritual consideration of that blisseful state in heaven which shall at last crown all their sad conflicts here on earth None like this sword to cut the very sinews of temptation and behead those lusts which defie and out-brave whole troops of other Arguments It is almost impossible to sin with lively thoughts and hopes of that glory 'T is when the thoughts of heaven are long out of the Christians sight and he knows not what is become of his hopes to that glorious place that he begins to set up some idol as Israel the Calfe in Moses his absence which he may dance before But let heaven come in sight and the Christians heart will be well-warm'd with the thoughts of it and you may as soon perswade a King to throw his royal Diademe into a sink and wallow with his robes in a kennel as a Saint to sin with the expectation of heavens glory Sin is a devils work not a Saints who is a Peer of heaven and waits every houre for the Writ that shall call him to stand with Angels and glorified Saints before the throne of God This would cheer the Christians heart and confirme him when the fight is hottest and the bullets flie thickest from men and devils to think 't is heaven all this is for where it 's worth having a place though we go through fire and water to it 'T is before the Lord said David to scoffing Michal that chose me before thy father and all his house therefore I will play before the Lord and I will yet be more vile then thus 2 Sam. 6.21 Thus Christian wouldest thou throw off the vipers of reproaches which from the fire of the wickeds malice flie upon thee 'T is for God that I pray hear mortifie my lust deny my self of my carnal sports profits and pleasures that God who hath passed by Kings and Princes to choose me a poor wretch to stand before him in glory therefore I will be yet more vile then thus O Sirs were there not another world to enjoy God in yet should we not while we have our being serve our Maker The heavens and the earth obey his Law that are capable of no reward for doing his Will Quench hell burn heaven said a holy man yet I will love and feare my God How much more when everlasting armes of mercy stand ready stretch't to carry you assoon as the fight is over into the blisseful presence of God You have servants of your own so ingenuous and observant that can follow your work hard abroad in all weathers and may they but when they come home weary and hungry at night obtain a kinde look from you and some tender care over them they are very thankful Yea saith one to shame the sluggish Christian how many hundred miles will the poor Spaniel run after his Master in a journey who gets nothing but a few crumbs or a bone from his Masters trencher In a word which is more the devils slaves what will they not do and venture at his command who hath not so much to give them as you to your dog not a crust not a drop of water to cool their tongue and shall not the joy of heaven which is set before the Christian into which he shall assuredly enter make him run his race endure a short scuffle of temptation and affliction yea sure and make him reckon also that these are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in him FINIS BOOKS lately printed by RALPH SMITH Master Dicksons Exposition on the whole Book of Psalmes in three Books Second Edition Mr. Hutcheson on all the twelve Small Prophets in three Volumns Mr. Cottons Exposition on Ecclesiastes Dr. Spurstowe of the Nature Preciousnesse and Usefulnesse of Gospel-Promises Mr. Rutherford on the Covenant of Grace are to be sold by Ralph Smith Also Mr. Bailies Appendix to the Hebrew Grammer AN ALPHABETICAL Table A. Ability ABilities of minde and body not to be gloried in 202 Accuser Satan an Accuser 116 How to know his accusations from the rebukes of Gods Spirit 117 Affliction Affliction a season Satan chooseth to tempt in 95 The day of affliction an evil day 351 How affliction is evil and how not 352 Afflictions discover the naughtinesse of the heart 354 Wicked men the worse for afflictions 356 Almighty Almightinesse given as the finest hold-fast for faith in straits 24 No easy matter to oppose Almighty Power against sense and reason 25 God very tender of the honour of this Attribute 27 28 A five-fold engagement on Gods Almighty Power for his Saints help 29 30 31 Answer How we put a stop to Gods Answers of prayer how not 47 48 Apostasie The Apostasie of false Christians must not discourage weake Saints 8 Lamentation for the Apostasie of these times 376 The root of final Apostasie is the want of a through change upon the heart 380 Armour What meant by Armour 53 The Saints Armour must be divine in institution 61 The slighty Armour used by Papists and carnal Protestants 62 Our armour must be of divine constitution 67 How to try our armour whether of God or not 69 The necessity of armour for every faculty and sense and why 73 Assurance Assurance lost by declining 336 Attribute Those Attributes of God which comfort Saints speak terrour to the wicked 38 B. Boldnesse The wickeds boldnesse and Saints cowardise alike uncomely 10 C. Christ What a Prince Christ is to his subjects 219 Covenant-relation with Christ See Covenant-relation Christian course Vprightnesse in our Christian course a comfort in the evil day 370 Church A cordial to our fainting faith for the afflicted Church 153 154 Comfort The Saints comfort ebbs or flows as he believes or questions his interest in the power of God 35 Conflict A soules conflict with sin an evidence of grace 169 Conquer Conquest Saints when most tempted cannot be conquered 138 The Saints Conquest at last makes amends for all 390 Conscience Sins against rebukes of conscience very dangerous 365 Contention The contention of Saint with Saint 179 The evil of it 180 Conversation The vanity of pretending to grace without a holy conversation discovered 89 Converts The advantage Satan hath on new Converts 94 Conversion Not necessary to know the time of Conversion 131 Covenant Gods Covenant sure 31 Covenant-relation with Christ How to get into Covenant-relation with Christ 367 Courage Courage necessary in a Saint 4 The want of this one cause of Apostasie 9 Corruption How to improve Gods power when corruption is too strong for us 4O Cunning. The folly of thinking to be too cunning for the devil and who do 112 Curse The curse that lies on the devil and his cause 139 This the cause why he prevailes not over Saints ib. D. Darknesse Sin called darknesse and why 213 Day See evil Death The houre of death