I know not yet whether he be willing to help me or not and so to have Jealous thoughts of his good will and so perish in refusing his help How tenderly did Christ deal with all sorts of sinners He professed that he came not into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved Did he weep over a rejected unbeleeving people and was he desirous of their desolation How oft would he have gathered them as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings mark that he would have done this for them that he cast off and they would not When his Disciples would have had fire come down from Heaven to consume those that refused him he reproves them and tells them They knâ—w not of what spirit they were of the common case of them that miscarry by suffering their zeal to overrun their Christian Wisdome and meekness Yea he prayeth for his crucifyers and that on the Crosse not forgetting them in the heat of his sufferings Thus he doth by the wicked But to those that follow him his tenderness is unspeakable as you would have said your self if you had but stood by and seen him washing his Disciples feet and wiping them or bidding Thomas put his fingers into his side and be not faithless but beleeving Alas that the Lord Jesus should come from Heaven to earth from Glory into humane flesh and passe through a life of misery to a Crosse and from the Crosse to the grave to manifest openly to the world the abundance of his Love and the tenderness of his heart to sinners and that after all this we should suspect him of cruelty or hardheartedness and unwillingness to shew mercy and that the devil can so far delude us as to make us think of the Lamb of God as if he were a Tyger or devourer But I-will say no more of this because D r Sibbs in his Bruised Reed hath said so much already Only remember that if you would methodically proceed to the attaining of solid Comfort this is the next stone that must be laid You must be deeply possessed with apprehensions of the most Gracious Nature and Office of the Redeemer and the exceeding tenderness of his heart to lost sinners DIRECTION V. 5. The next step in right order to Comfort is this You must beleeve and consider the full sufficiency of Christs Sacrifice and Ransome for All. THe Controversies about this you need not be troubled at for as almost all confess this sufficiency so the Scripture it self by the plainness and fullness of its expression makes it as clear as the light that Christ died for All. The fuller proof of this I have given you in publike and shall do yet more publikely if God will If Satan would perswade you either that no Ransome or Sacaifice was ever given for you or that therefore you have no Redeemer to trust in and no Saviour to beleeve in and no Sanctuary to fly to from the wrath of God he must first prove you either to be no lost sinner or to be a final-impenitent unbeleever that is that you are dead already or else he must delude your understanding to make you think that Christ died not for All and then I confess he hath a sore advantage against your faith and comfort DIRECTION VI. 6. The next thing in order to be done is this Get clear apprehensions of the freeness fullness and universality of the New Covenant or Law of Grace I Mean the Promise of Remission Justification Adoption and Salvation to All so they will beleeve No man on earth is excluded in the tenor of this covenant and therefore certainly you are not excluded and if not excluded then you must needs be included Shew where you are excluded if you can You will say But for all this All men are not Justified and saved Ans True because they Will not be perswaded to Accept the Mercy that is freely given them The use that I would have you make of this I will shew in the next DIRECTION VII 7. You must get the right understanding of the difference between General Grace and Special and between the Possibility Probability Conditional certainty and Absolute certainty of your Salvation and so between the Comfort on the former ground and on the later ANd here I shall open to you a rich mine of Consolation Understand therefore that as every particular part of the house is built on the foundation so is every part of Special Grace built on General Grace Understand also that all the four last mentioned particulars do belong to this General Grace As also that though no man can have Absolute Certainty of Salvation from the consideration of this General Grace alone yet may it afford abundance of relief to distressed souls yea much true Consolation Lastly Understand that All that hear the Gospel may take part in this Consolation though they have no Assurance of their Salvation at all no nor any special Saving Grace Now when you understand these things well this is the Use that I would have you make of them 1. Do not begin the way to your Spiritual Peace by enquiring after the sincerity of your Graces and trying your selves by Signes Do not seek out for Assurance of Salvation in the first place nor do not look and study after the special Comforts which come from certainty of Special Grace bâ—fore you have learned 1. To perform the Duty 2. And to Receive the Comforts which General Grace affordeth Such immethodical disorderly proceedings keepeth thousands of poor ignorant Christians in darkness and trouble almost all their daies Let the first thing you do be to obey the voice of the Gospel which calleth you to Accept of Christ and special Mercy This is the Record that God hath given us eternal Life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life Fix this deep in your minde that the nature of the Gospel is first to declare to our Understandings the most gracious Nature undertakings and performances of Christ for us which must be beleeved to be true And 2. To Offer this Christ with all his special Mercy to every man to whom this Gospel comes and to Intreat them to Accept Christ and Life which is freely given and offered to them Remember then You are a lost sinner for certain Christ and Life in him is given and offered to you Now your first work is Presently to accept it not to make an unseasonable enquiry Whether Christ be yours but to Take him that he may be yours If you were Condemned and a Pardon were freely Given you on Condition you would Thankfully Take it and it were offered to you and you intreated to take it what would you do in this Case would you spend your time and thoughts in searching whether this Pardon be already yours or would you not presently Take it that it may be yours Or if you were ready to famish and food were offered
Repented Believed in a Redeemer c. but for thy sin Yet I hope none will say that so doing is properly a sin though doing them defectively is God doth not will and approve of it that any soul that can see no signes of Grace and sincerity in it self should yet be as confident and merry and careless as if they were certain that all were well God would not have men doubt of his Love and yet make light of it This is a contempt of him Else what should poor carnall sinners do that finde themselves unsanctified No nor doth God expect that any man should judge of himself better then he hath evidence to warrant such a judgement But that every man should prove his own work that so he may have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another For he that thinketh he is something when he is nothing deceiveth himself Gal. 6.3 4 5 6. And no man should be a self-deceiver especially in a case of such unexpressible consequence It is therefore a most desperate doctrine of the Antinomians as most of theirs are that all men ought to believe Gods special Love to them and their own Justification and that they are justified by Believing that they were justified before and that no man ought to question his faith saith Saltmarsh any more then to question Christ and that all fears of our Damnation or not being Justified after this Believing are sinne and those that perswade to them are Preachers of the Law How punctually do the most prophane ungodly people hold most points of the Antinomian belief though they never knew that Sect by name God commandeth no man to Believe more then is true nor immediatly to cast away their doubts and fears but to overcome them in an orderly methodical way that is using Gods means till their Graces become more discernable and their understandings more clear and fit to discern them that so we may have Assurance of their sincerity and thereby of our Justification Adoption and right to Glorification Heb. 4.1 Let us therefore fear least a Promise being left of entring into his Rest any of us should seem to come short of it Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce before him with trembling Kiss the Sonne lest he be angry and ye perish Phil. 2.12 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Not only 1. A reverent fear of Gods Majesty 2. And a filial fear of offending him 3. And an awfull fear of his Judgements when we see them executed on others and hear them threatned 4. And a filial fear of temporal chastisements and lawfull and our duty but also 5. A fear of damnation exciting to most carefull importunity to escape it when ever we have so far obscured our evidences as to see no strong probability of our sincerity in the faith and so of our salvation The summe of my speech therefore is this Do not think that all your fears of Gods wrath are your sins Much of them is your great duty Do you not feel that God made these fears at your first conversion the first and a principal means of your Recovery to drive you to a serious consideration of your state and waies and to look after Christ with more longing and estimation and to use the means with more resolution and diligence Have not these fears been chief preservers of your diligence and integrity ever since I know love should do more then it doth with us all But if we had not daily use for both Love and Fear God would not 1. Have planted them both in our natures 2. And have renewed them both by regenerating Grace 3. And have put into his word the objects to move both viz. Threatnings as well as Promises That fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom includeth the fear of his threatned wrath I could say abundance more to prove this but that I know as to you it is needless for conviction of it but remember the use of it Do not put the name of unbelief upon all your fears of Gods displeasure Much less should you presently conclude that you have no faith and that you cannot believe because of these fears You may have much faith in the midst of these fears and God may make them preservers of your faith by quickning you up to that means that must maintain it and by keeping you from those evils that would be as a worm at the root of it and eat out its precious strength and life Security is no friend to faith but a deadlier enemy then fear it self Obj. Then Cain and Judas sinned not by despairing or at least not damnably Answ 1. They despaired not only of themselves and of the event of their salvation but also of God of his Power or Goodness and Promise and the sufficiency of any satisfaction of Christ Their infidelity was the root of their despair 2. Farre is it from me to say or think that you should despair of the event or that it is no sin yea or that you should cherish causeless and excessive jealousies and fears I shall shew you towards the end the sinfulness of so doing Take heed of all fears that drive you from God or that distract or weaken your spirit or disable you from duty or drown your love to God and delight in him and destroy your apprehensions of Gods Loveliness and Compassion and raise black and hard and unworthy thoughts of God in your minde Again I intreat you avoid and abhorre all such fears But if you find in you the fears of godly jealousie of your own heart and such moderated fears of the wrath of God which banish security presumption and boldness in sinning and are as D. Sibbs cals them the awe-band of your soul and make you fly to the merits and bosom of the Lord Jesus as the affrighted child to the lap of the mother and as the man-slayer under the Law to the City of refuge and as a man pursued by a Lion to his Sanctuary or hold do not think you have no faith because you have these fears but moderate them by faith and love and then thank God for them Indeed Perfect love which will be in heaven when all is perfected will cast out this fear and so it will do sorrow and care and prayer and means But see you lay not these by till Perfect love have cast them out See Jer. 5.22 23. Heb. 12. two last verses Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear For our God is a consuming fire I am sensible that I am too large on these foregoing heads I will purposely shorten the rest lest I weary you DIRECTION XIX 19. Further understand that Those few who do attain to Assurance have it not either perfectly or constantly for the most part but mixt with imperfection and oft clouded and interrupted THat the highest Assurance on earth is imperfect I have shewed
supposition I explicate the point thus 1. No man may look at his own Graces or Duties as his Legal Righteousness that is such as for which the Law of Works will pronounce him Righteous 2. Nor yet may he take them for part of his Legal Righteousness in conjunction with Christs Righteousness as the other part but here we must go wholly out of our selves and deny and disclaim all such Righteousness of our own We have no Works which make the Reward to be not of Grace but of Debt 3. We must not once think that our Graces Duties or sufferings can make satisfaction to Gods Justice for our sin and unrighteousness nor yet that they are any part of that satisfaction Here we ascribe all â—o Christ who is the only Sacrifice and Ransome 4. Nor must we think that our Duties or Graces are properly Meritorious this â—lso is to be left as the sole honour of Christ â— Yet that we may and must raise our Asâ—urance and Comforts from our own Graâ—es and Duties shall appear in these clear Reasons following which shew also the Grounds on which we may do it 1. Pardon Justification and Adoption and Salvation are all Given to us in the Gospel only Conditionally if we believe and the Condition is an act or rather several acts of our own Now till the Condition be performed no man can have any Certainty that the Benefit shall be his nor can he by any other means ordinarily be certain of the Benefit but by that which ascertaineth him that he hath performed the Condition God saith He that Believeth shall be saved No man can know then that he shall be saved till he first know that he Believeth Else he should know either contrary to that which is written or more then that which is written And Justification and Adoption should be given some other way then by the Gospel Promise for that Promise giveth them only Conditionally and so suspendeth the actual right upon the performance of the Condition But if any can shew any other way by which God maketh over pardon and Adoption besides the Gospel promise let them do it but I will not promise suddenly to believe them for it was never yet shewed as I know of Also if men must not look aâ— their own performance of the Condition to prove their right to the benefit then eitheâ— all or none must believe that they have thaâ— right For the Promise saith He that Believetâ— shall be saved And this is a promise of Lifâ— conditionally to all If all must believe that they shall be saved then most of the world must believe a lye If the true believer may not therefore conclude that he shall be saved because he performeth the condition of the promise then no man may believe it And for that absolute Promise of the new Heart no man can or may believe that it is his till he have that new heart which it promiseth that is till it be fulfilled For there is no Mark by which a man can know whether that Promise belong to him or no before-hand and if all should believe that it belongs to them most would finde it false 2. God hath not Redeemed us by his Son to be Lawless To be without Law is to be without Government We are without the Law that is of Works or of Moses but not without Law Jesus Christ is our Ruler and he hath made us a Law of Grace an easie yoak and commands that are not grievous This Law hath Precepts Promises and threats it must needs be either obeyed or disobeyed and so the paenalty must be due or not due and the Reward due or not due He that performs the condition and so to whom the reward is due and not the paenalty is Righteous in the sense of this Law As when we are accused to be sinners against the Law of Works and so to deserve the paenalty of that Law we must confess all and plead the Righteousness of Christs satisfaction for our Justification so when we are accused to be final unbelievers or impenitent and so not to have performed the conditions of the new Covenant we must be Justified by our own Faith and Repentance the performance of that condition and must plead Not guilty And so far our own Acts are our Evangelical Righteousness and that of such necessity that without it no man can have part in Christs Righteousness nor be saved I would desire any man else to tell me what else he will plead at Judgement when the Accuseâ— chargeth him or if he do so charge him with final unbelief will he confess it and say Christ hath Believed and Repented for me that is as much as to say Christ was a Believer for Infidels that he might save Infidels All false If he will not say thus and lying will do no good then must he plead his own Believing and Repenting as his Righteousness in opposition to that Accusation And if it be of such use then and be called a hundred times in Scripture our Righteousness and we Righteous for it then doubtless we may accordingly try by it now whether we shall then be able to come off and be Justified or no and so may build our comfort on it 3. Conscience is a Witness and Judge within us and doth as under God Accuse and Condemn or Excuse and Acquit Now if Conscience must absolve us only so far as we are Innocent or do well or are qualified with Grace then it is impossible but these our Qualifications and Actions should be some ground of our Comfort See Acts 24.16 and 23.1 Rom. 2.15 16. 4. Those which are our Graces and Works as we are the Subjects and Agents are the Graces and Works of God of Christ of the holy Ghost dwelling in us If therefore we may not Rejoice in our own Works or Graces then we may not Rejoice in the Works or Guifts of God Christ or the holy Ghost And 5. Our Graces are the spiritual Life or Health of the soul and our holy actions are the vital operations Now Life and Health are necessary Rejoycing delighting things of themselves and vital Actions are necessarily pleasant and delectable 6. Our Graces and holy Actions must needs Rejoice us in respect of their Objects For the object of our Love Trust Hope Meditation Prayer Conference c. is God himself and the Lord Jesus and the Joyes of Heaven And how can such Actions choose but Rejoice us 7. Yea Rejoicing it self and Delighting our selves in God is not only one part of our Duty but that great Duty wherein lieth the height of our Christianity And how vain a speech is it to say that we may not take up our Comforts from our own works nor Rejoice in any thing of our own when even Rejoicing it self and Delighting and Comforting our selves is one part of our Duty 8. As God in Christ is the chief object and ground of our Comfort so that we must Rejoice in nothing but
thy pleasures wilt thou undo thy self wilt thou be made a scorn or laughing stock to all Or rather it strongly draws and provoketh when it hath nothing to say No wonder if this poor sinner be here in a strait and live in distress of minde But as long as the flesh holds so fast that all this conviction and trouble will not cause it to lose its hold the poor soul is still in the bonds of iniquity The case of such an hypocrite or half-Christian is like the case of the poor Papist that having glutted himself with flesh in the Lent was in this strait that either he must vomit it up and so disclose his fault and undergo penance or else he must be sick of his furfeit and hazzard his life But he resolveth rather to venture on the danger then to bear the penance Or their case is like that of a proud woman that hath got on a strait garment or a pinching shoe and because she will not be out of the fashion she will rather choose to bear the pain though she halt or suffer at every step Or like the more impudent sort of them who will endure the cold and perhaps hazzard their lives by the nakedness of their necks and breasts and armes rather then they will controul their shameless pride What cure now should a wise man wish to such people as these Surely that the shoe might pinch yet a little harder till the pain might force them to cast it off And that they might catch some cold that would pay them for their folly so it would but spare their lives till it should force them to be ashamed of their pride and cover their nakedness Even so when disobedient hypocrites do complain that they are afraid they have no grace and afraid God doth not pardon them and will not save them I should tell them if I knew them that I am afraid so to and that it is not without cause and desire that their fears were such as might affright them from their disobedience and force them to cast away their wilfull sinning I have said the more on this point because I know if this advice do but help you to mortifie your sin the best and greatest work is done whether you get Assurance and comfort or no and withall that it is the most probable means to this Assurance and Comfort I should next have warned you of the other extream viz. needless scruples but I mean to make that a peculiar Direction by it self when I have first added a little more of this great means of Peace A sound Obedience DIRECTION XXIV 24. My next advice for the obtaining of a setled Peace and Comfort is this Take heed that you content not your self with a cheap course of Religion and such a serving of God as costeth you little or nothing But in your abstaining from sin in your rising out of sin and in your discharge of Duty incline most to that way which is most self-denying and displeasing to the flesh so you be sure it be a lawful way And when you are called out to any work which will stand you in extraordinary labour and cost you must be so far from shrinking and drawing your neck out of the yoke that you must look upon it as a special prize that is put into your hand a singular advantage opportunity for the increase of your comforts THIS Rule is like the rest of the Christian Doctrine which is not throughly understood by any way but experience Libertines and sensual Professors that never tryed it did never well understand it I could find in my heart to be large in explaining and applying it but that I have been so large beyond my first intentions in the former Directions that I will cut off the rest as short as â— well can Let none be so wickedly injurious to me as to say I speak or think of any Merit properly so called in any the costliest work of man Fasten not that on me which I both disclaim and desire the Reader to take heed of But I must tell you these two things 1. That a cheap Religion is a far more uncertain evidence of sincerity then a dear it will not discover so well to a mans own soul whether he prefer Christ before the world and whether he take him and his Benefits for his Portion and Treasure 2. That a cheap Religion is not usually accompanied with any notable degree of Comforts although the person be a sincere-hearted Christian Every Hypocrite can submit to a Religion that will cost him little much more which will get Reputation with men of greatest Wisdom and Piety Yea he may stick to it so it will not undo him in the world If a man have knowledge and gifts of utterance and strength of body it is no costly matter to speak many good words or to be earnest in opposing the sins of others and to preach zealously and frequently much more if he have double honour by it Reverent Obedience and Maintenance as Ministers of the Gospel have or ought to have It is hard to discern sincerity in such a course of Piety and Duty Wo to those Persecutors that shall put us to the Trial how far we can go in suffering for Christ but it should be a matter of Rejoycing to us when we are put upon it To be Patient in Tribulation is not enough but to Rejoyce in it is also the duty of a Saint Let those that think this draweth men to Rejoyce too much in themselves but hear what the Lord Jesus himself saith and his Spirit in his Apostles Mat. 5 10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil sayings against you falsly for my names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Iam. 1.2 3 12. My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations not inward temptations of the Devil and our Lust but trials by persecution knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him See Luk. 6.23 1 Pet. 4.13 Act. 5.41 2 Cor. 6.10 7.4 Col. 1.11 Heb. 10.34 2 Cor. 13.9 12.15 Oh how gloriously doth a tried faith shine to the comfort of the Believer and the admiration of the Beholders How easily may a Christian try himself at such a time when God is trying him One hours experience when we have found that our faith can endure the furnace and that we can hazard or let go all for Christ will more effectually resolve all our doubtings of our sincerity then many a months trial by meer questioning of our own deceitful hearts Object But you may say what if God call me not to
before some bashful or proud or tender Patients will open their disease The very opening of a mans grief to a faithful friend doth oft ease the heart of it self 2. And that this should be done to your Pastor I will shew you further anon 2. But you must understand well when this is your Duty 1. Not in every small infirmity which accompanies Christians in their daily most watchful Conversation Nor yet in every lesser Doubt which may be otherways resolved It is a folly and a wrong to Physitians to run to them for every cut finger or prick with a pin Every neighbour can help you in this 2. Nor except it be a weighty case indeed go not first to a Minister But first study the case your self and seek Gods direction If that will not serve open your case to your nearest bosom friend that is godly and judicious And in these two cases always go to your Pastor 1. In case privater means can do you no Good then God calls you to seek further If a cut finger so fester that ordinary means will not cure it you must go to the Physician 2. If the case be weighty and dangerous For then none but the more prudent advice is to be trusted If you be struck with a dangerous disease I would not have you delay so long nor wrong your self so much as to stay while you tamper with every womans medicine but go presently to the Physician So if you either fall into any grievous sin or any terrible pangs of Conscience or any great streights and difficulties about matters of Doctrine or Practice go presently to your Pastour for advice The Devil and Pride and Bashfulness will do their utmost to hinder you but see that they prevail not 3. Next consider to what End you must do this Not 1. either to expect that a Minister can of himself create Peace in you or that all your Doubts should vanish as soon as ever you have opened your mind Onely the great Peacemaker the Prince of Peace can create Peace in you Ascribe not to any the office of the Holy Ghost to be your effectual Comforter To expect more from man then belongs to man is the way to receive nothing from him but to cause God to blast to you the best endeavours 2. Nor must you resolve to take all meerly from the word of your Pastour as if he were Infallible Nor absolutely to Judge of your self as he Judgeth For he may be too rigorous or more commonly too charitable in his opinion of you There may be much of your disposition and conversation unknown to him which may hinder his right Judging But 1. You must use your Pastour as the ordained Instrument Messenger of the Lord Jesus his Spirit appointed to speak a word in season to the weary and to shew to man his Righteousness and to strengthen the weak hands and feeble knees yea and more to bind and loose on Earth as Christ doth bind and loose in Heaven As Christ and his Spirit do onely save in the principal place and yet Ministers save souls in subordination to them as his Instruments Act. 26.17 18. 1 Tim. 4.15 16. Jam. 5.20 So Christ and the Spirit are as Principal Causes the onely Comforters but his Ministers are Comforters under him 2. And that which you must expect from them is these two things 1. You must expect those fuller discoveries of Gods Will then you are able to make your self by which you may have assurance of your duty to God and of the sense of Scripture which expresseth how God will deal with you That so a clearer discovery of Gods mind may Resolve your Doubts 2. In the mean time till you can come to a full Resolution you may and must somewhat stay your self on the very Judgement of your Pastour Not as Infallible but as a discovery of the Probability of your Good or bad estate and so of your duty also Though you will not renounce your own understanding and believe any man when you know he is deceived or would deceive you yet you will so far suspect your own reason and value anothers as to have a special regard to every mans Judgement in his own Profession If the Physician tell you that your disease is not dangerous or the Lawyer that your Cause is good it will more Comfort you then if another man should say as much It may much stay your heart till you can reach to clear Evidences and Assurance to have a Pastor that is well acquainted with you and is faithful and Judicious to tell you that he verily thinks that you are in a safe Condition 3. But the chief use of his Advice is not so much to tell you what he thinks of you as to give you Directions how you may Judge of your self and come out of your trouble Besides the benefit of his Prayers to God for you 4. Next let me tell you what men you must choose to open your mind to And they must be 1. Men of Judgement and Knowledge and not the Ignorant be they never so honest Else they may deceive you not knowing what they do either for want of understanding the Scripture and the nature of Grace and Sin or for want of skill to deal with both weak Consciences and deep deceitful hearts 2. They must be truly fearing God and of experience in this great work For a Troubled soul is seldom well resolved and comforted meerly out of a Book but from the Book and Experience both together Carnal or formal men will but make a Jest at the Doubts of a Troubled Christian or at least will give you such formal Remedies as will prove no Cure Either they will perswade you as the Antinomians do that you should trust God with your soul and never Question your Faith Or that you do ill to trouble your self about such things Or they will direct you onely to the Comforts of General Grace and tell you onely that God is Merciful and Christ dyed for sinners which are the necessary Foundations of our Peace but will not answer particular Doubts of our own sincerity and of our Interest in Christ Or else they will make you believe that Holiness of heart and life which is the thing you look after is it that troubleth you and breeds all your scruples Or else with the Papists they will send you to your Merits for Comfort or to some Vindictive Penance in Fastings Pilgrimages or the like or to some Saint departed or Angel or to the Pardons or Indulgencies of the Pope or to a certain formal carnal Devotion to make God amends 3. They must be men of downright Faithfulness that will deal plainly and freely though not cruelly and not like those tender Surgeons that will leave the Cure undone for fear of hurting Meddle not with men-pleasers and daubers that will presently speak Comfort to you as Confidently as if they had known you twenty years when perhaps they know
temptations why Christ was tempted to cast himself headlong and to worship the Devil for worldly preferment Yea the devil had power to carry his body up and down to the pinacle of the Temple and the top of a mountain If he had such power of you would you not think your self certainly his slave I conclude therefore as it is an exceeding ground of comfort to all the sick people in a City to know that there is a most merciful and skilful Physitian that is easily able to cure them and hath undertaken to do it freely for all that will take him for their Physitian so is it a ground of exceeding comfort to the worst of sinners to all sinners that are yet alive and have not blasphemed the holy Ghost to know what a Merciful and sufficient Saviour hath undertaken the work of mans Redemption 3. Also Suppose yet that you are Graceless Is it nothing that a sufficient Sacrifice and Ransome is given for you This is the very foundation of all solid Peace I think this is a great comfort to know that God looks now for no satisfaction at your hand and that the Number or Greatness of your sins as such cannot now be your ruine For certainly no man shall perish for want of the payment of his Ransome or of an expiatory Sacrifice for sin but only for want of a willing heart to Accept him that hath freely Ransomed them 4. Also Suppose you are Graceless Is it nothing that God hath under his hand and seal made a full and free Deed of Guift to you and all sinners of Christ and with him of pardon and salvation and all this on Condition of your Acceptance or Consent I know the Despisers of Christ shall be miserable for all this But for you that would fain have Christ is it no comfort to know that you shall have him if you will and to finde this to be the summe of the Gospel I know you have oft read those free offers Rev. 22.17 Whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely Hoe every one that thirsteth come and drink c. Almost all that I have hitherto said to you is comprised in that one text Joh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life And as I have shewed it you in the Causes what Comfort even General Mercie may afford so let me a little shew it you in the Effects I mean not only in that God is now satisfied but as to your self and every sinner these three things are produced hereby 1. There is now a Possibility of Salvation to you And certainly even that should be a very great Comfort I know you will meet with some Divines who will tell you that this is no effect of Christs death and that else Christ should die for God if he procured him a Power to save which he had not before But this is no better then a Reproaching of our Redeemer Suppose that a Traytor have so abused a King that it will neither stand with his own Honour nor Justice nor Laws to pardon him If his Compassion were so great that his own Son shall suffer for him that so the King might be capable of pardoning him without any diminution of his Honour or Justice were it not a vile reproach if this Traytor should tell the Prince that suffered for him It was for your Father that you suffered to procure him a Power of pardoning it was not for me It s true the King could not pardon him without satisfaction to his Honour and Justice But this was not through any Impotency but because the thing was not fit to be done and so was Morally Impossible For in Law we say Dishonest things are Impossible And it had been no losse to the King if the Traytor had not been pardoned So is it in our Case And therefore Christs sufferings could not be more eminently for us then by enabling the offended Majesty to forgive us and so taking the greatest impediment out of the way for when impediments are once removed Gods Nature is so Gracious and prone to Mercy that he would soon pardon us when once it is fit to be done and so Morally possible in the fullest sense only mens own Unwillingness now stands in the way and makes it to be not fully fit to be yet done It s true in a Remote sense the Pardon of sin was alway Possible but in the neerest sense it was Impossible till Christ made it Possible by his Satisfaction 2. Nay though you were yet Graceless you have now this Comfort that your Salvation is Probable as well as Possible You are very fair for it The termes be not hard in themselves on which it is tendered For Christs yoak is easie and his burden light and his Commands are not grievous The word is nigh you even the offer of Grace you need not say who shall ascend to Heaven or go down to hell Rom. 10. But this will appear in the next 3. Yea this exceeding Comfort there is even for them that are Graceless that their Salvation is Conditionally Certain and the Condition is but their own willingness They may all have Christ and Life if they will Now I desire you in all your Doubts that you will well consider and improve this one Truth and Ground of Comfort Would you in the midst of your groans and complaints and fears take it for a small mercy to be certain that you shall have Christ if you will when you are praying for Christ in fear and anguish of spirit if an Angel or voice from Heaven should say to you It shall be unto thee according to thy will If thou wilt have Christ and Life in him thou shalt would this be no Comfort to you would it not revive you and overcome your fears By this time I hope you see what abundance of Comfort General Mercy or Grace may afford the soul before it perceive yea or receive any special Grace though few of those that receive not Special Grace can make much use of General yet it is propounded to them as well as others 1. All the terrifying Temptations which are grounded on misrepresentations of God as if he were a cruel destroyer to be fled from are dispelled by the due consideration of his Goodness and the deep setled apprehensions of his Gracious Merciful Lovely Nature which indeed is the first work of true Religion and the very master Radical Act of true Grace and the chief maintainer of Spiritual Life and Motion 2. All these Temptations are yet more effectually dispelled by considering this Merciful Divine Nature dwelling in flesh becoming man by condescending to the Assumption of our humane Nature and so come neer us and assuming the Office of being the Mediator the Redeemer the Saviour of the world 3. All your doubts and fears that proceed from your former sins whether of youth or
little of it then in rich men that have more to tempt them though dangerous in both Nor doth it lye only in coveting that which is anothers or in seeking to get by unlawfull means but also in over-valuing and over-loving the wealth of the world though lawfully gotten He that loveth the world that is above Christ and holiness the love of the Father is not in him that is savingly and sincerely 1 Joh. 2.15 He that loveth house or lands better then Christ cannot be his Disciple I beseech you therefore when God hides his face search diligently and search again and again least the world should encroach on Christs interest in your heart If it should be so can you wonder if Christ seem to withdraw when you begin to set so light by him as to value dung and earth in any comparison with himself May not he well say to you If you set so much by the world take it and see what it will do for you If you can spare me better then your wealth you shall be without me Must not the Lord Jesus needs take it exceeding unkindly that after all his love and bloodshed and pains with your heart and seals of his kindness and discoveries of his Amiableness and the Treasures of his Kingdom you should now so much forget and slight him to set up the world in any comparison with him and to give such loving entertainment to his enemy and look so kindly on a competitor Is his glory worth no more then so and hath he deserved no better at your hands Again therefore do I beseech you to be afraid lest you should be guilty of this sin Examine whether the thoughts of the world grow not sweeter to you and the thoughts of God and glory more unwelcome and unpleasing whether you have not an eagerness after a fuller estate and too keen an edge upon your desires after riches or at least after a fuller portion and provision for your children or after better accommodations and contentments in House Goods or other worldly things Do not worldly hopes delight you too much and much more your worldly possessions Are you not too busily contriving how to be richer forgetting Gods words 1 Tim. 6.8 9 17. Doth not the world eat out the life of your duties that when you should be serious with God you have left your heart behinde you and drowned your affections in things below Doth not your soul stick so fast in this mud and clay that you can scarce stirre it Godward in Prayer or heavenly Meditation Do not you cut short duties in your family and in secret if not frequently omit them that so you may be again at your worldly business Or do you not customarily hurry them over because the world will not allow you leasure to be serious and so you have no time to deal in good earnest with Christ or your soul Do not your very speeches of Christ and heaven grow few and strange because the world must first be served When you see your brother have need do you not shut up the bowels of your compassions from him Doth not the love of the world make you hard to your servants hard to those you buy and sell with And doth it not incroach much on the Lords own day Look after this earthly vice in all these discoveries search for your enemy in each of these corners And if you finde that this is indeed your case you need not much wonder if Christ and you be stranger then heretofore If this earth get between your heart and the Sun of Life no wonder if all your Comforts are in an eclipse seeing your Light is but as the Moon 's a borrowed Light And you must be the more carefull in searching after this sinne both because it is certain that all men have too much of it and because it is of so dangerous a nature that should it prevail it would destroy For coveteousness is Idolatry And among all the hainous sinnes that the godly have fallen into look into the Scripture and tell me how many of them you finde charged with coveteousness And also because it is a blinding befooling sinne not only drawing old men and those that have no children and rich men that have no need to pursue these things as madly as others but also hiding it self from their eyes that most that are guilty of it will not know it Though alas if they were but willing it were very easie to know it But the power of the sinne doth so set awork their wits to finde excuses and fair names and titles for to cloak it that many delude others by it and more delude themselves but none can delude God The case of some Professors of Godliness that I have known is very lamentable in this point who being generally noted for a dangerous measure of worldliness by most that know them could yet never be brought to acknowledge it in themselves Nay by the excellency of their outward duties and discourse and the strength of their wits alas ill imployed and by their great ability of speech to put a fair gloss on the foulest of their actions they have gone on so smoothly and plausibly in their worldliness that though most accused them of it behinde their backs yet no man knew how to fasten any thing on them By which means they were hindered from repentance and recovery In this sad case though it be Gods course very often to let hypocrites and other enemies go on and prosper because they have their portion in this life and the reckoning is to come yet I have oft observed that for Gods own people or those that he means to make his people by their recovery God useth to cross them in their worldly desires and designes Perhaps he may let them thrive a while and congratulate the prosperity of their flesh but at last he breaks in suddenly on their wealth and scatters it abroad or addeth some cross to it that imbitters it all to them and then asketh them Where is now your Idol and then they begin to see their folly If you do dote on any thing below to the neglecting of God he will make a rod for you of that very thing you dote upon and by it will he scourge you home to himself 3. The third great heart-sinne which I would have you jealous of is Sensuality or Voluptuousness or pleasing the senses inordinately The two former are in this the more mortall sinnes in that they carry more of the Understanding and Will with them and make Reasoâ— it self to be serviceable to them in their workings whereas sensuality is more in the flesh and passion and hath oft times less assistance of Reason or Consent of the Will Yet is the Will tainted with sensual inclinations and both Reason and Will are at the best guilty of connivence and not exercising their authority over the sensual part But in this sensuality is the more dangerous vice in that it
mistakes of many sad Christians hereabouts The cure lieth in breaking off sinne to the utmost of your power This is the Achan that disquieteth all It is Gods great mercy that he disquieteth you in sinning and gives you not over to so deep a slumber and peace in sinne as might hinder your repentance and reformation The dangerous mistakes here are these two 1. Some do as the Lapwing cry loudest when they are furthest from the nest and complain of an aking tooth when the disease is in the head or heart They cry out O I have such wandring thoughts in prayer and such a bad memory and so hard a heart that I cannot weep for sinne or such doubts and fears and so little sense of the Love of God that I doubt I have no true Grace When they should rather say I have so proud a heart that God is fain by these sad means to humble me I am so high in my own eyes so wise in my own conceit and so tender of my own esteem and credit that God is fain to make me base in my own eyes and to abhorre my self I am so worldly and in love with earth that it draws away my thoughts from God duls my love and spoils all my duties I am so sensual that I venture sooner to displease my God then my flesh I have so little compassion on the infirmities of neighbours and servants and other brethren and deal so censoriously churlishly and unmercifully with them that God is fain to hide his mercy from me and speak to me as in anger and vex me as in sore displeasure I am so froward peevish quarrelsome unpeaceable and hard to be pleased that it is no wonder if I have no peace with God or in my own conscience and if I have so little quietness who love and seek it no more Many have more reason I say to turn their complaints into this tune 2. Another most common unhappy miscarriage of sad Christians lieth here that They will rather continue complaining and self-tormenting then give over sinning so farre as they might give it over if they would I beseech you in the Name of God to know and consider what it is that God requireth of you He doth not desire your vexation but your reformation No further doth he desire the trouble of your minde then as it tendeth to the avoiding of that sinne which is the cause of it God would have you less in your fears and troubles and more in your obedience Obey more and disquiet your minde less Will you take this counsel presently and see whether it will not do you more good then all the complaints and doubtings of your whole life have done Set your self with all your might against your pride worldliness and sensuality your unpeaceableness and want of love and tenderness to your brethren and whatever other sin your conscience is acquainted with I pray you tell me If you had gravell in your shoe in your travel would it not be more wisdom to sit down and take off your shoe and cast it out then to stand still or go complaining and tell every one you meet of your soreness If you have a thorn in your foot will you go on halting and lamenting or will you pull it out Truly sinne is the thorn in your conscience and those that would not have such troubled consciences told of their sinnes for fear of increasing their distress are unskilfull comforters and will continue the trouble while the thorn is in As ever you would have peace then resolve against sinne to the utmost of your power Never excuse it or cherish it or favour it more Confess it freely Thank those that reprove you for it Desire those about you to watch over you and to tell you of it yea to tell you of all suspitious signes that they see of it though it be not evident And if you do not see so much Pride Worldliness Unpeaceableness or other sinnes in your self as your friends think they see in you yet let their judgement make you jealous of your heart seeing self-love doth oft so blinde us that we cannot see that evil in our selves which others see in us nay which all the Town may take notice of And be sure to engage your friends that they shall not smooth over your faults or mince them and tell you of them in extenuating language which may hinder Conviction and Repentance much less silence them for fear of displeasing you but that they will deal freely and faithfully with you And see that you distast them not and discountenance not their plain dealing lest you discourage them and deprive your soul of so great a benefit Think best of those as your greatest friends who are least friends to your sinne and do most for your recovery very from it If you say Alas I am not able to mortifie my sinnes It is not in my power I answer 1. I speak not of a perfect conquest nor of a freedom from every passion or infirmity 2. Take heed of pretending disability when it is unwillingness If you were heartily willing you would be able to do much and God would strengthen you Cannot you resist Pride Worldliness and Sensuality if you be willing Cannot you forbear most of the actual sinnes you commit and perform the duties that you omit if you be Willing though not so well as you would perform them Yea let me say this much lest I endanger you by sparing you Many a miserable hypocrite doth live in trouble of minde and complaining and after all perish for their wilfull disobedience Did not the rich young man go farre before he would break off with Christ and when he did leave him he went away sorrowfull And what was the cause of his sorrow Why the matter was that he could not be saved without selling all and giving it to the poor when he had great Possessions It was not that he could not be rid of his sinne but that he could not have Christ and Heaven without forsaking the world This is the case of unsanctified persons that are enlightened to see the need of Christ but are not weaned from worldly profits honours and pleasures they are perhaps troubled in minde and I cannot blame them but it is not that they cannot leave sinning but that they cannot have Heaven without leaving their delights and contentments on earth Sin as sin they would willingly leave For no man can love evil as evil But their fleshly profits honours and pleasures they will not leave and there is the stop and this is the cause of their sorrows and fears For their own judgement cries out against them He that loveth the world the love of the Father is not in him If ye live after the flesh ye shall die God resisteth the proud This is the voice of their informed understandings And conscience seconds it and saith Thou art the man But the flesh cries louder then both these Wilt thou leave
much by over-honouring them as ever he did by persecuting and despising them And now in England when this plot is descryed and we had taken down that superâ—â—uous honour as Antichristian what doth the Devil but set in again on the other side and none is so Zealous a Reformer as he He cryes down all as Antichristian which he desireth should fall Their Tythes and Maintenance are Antichristian and oppressive O Pious Merciful Devil down with them These Church-lands were given by Papists to Popish uses to maintain Bishops and Deans and Chapters down with them These Colledge-lands these Cathedrals nay these Church-houses or Temples for so I le call them whether the Devil will or no all come from Idolaters and are abused to Idolatry down with them Nay think you but he hath taken the boldness to cry out These Priests these Ministers are all Antichristian Seducers Needless Enviers of the spirit of Prophesy and of the Gifts of their Brethren Monopolizers of Preaching down with them too So that though he yet have not what he would have the old Serpent hath done more as a Reformer by over-doing then he did in many a year as a Deformer or hinderer of Reformation Yet if he do but see that there is a Soveraign Power that can do him a Mischief he is ready to tell them They must be Merciful and not deal Cruelly with sinners Nay it belongs not to them to reform or to Judge who are Hereticks and who not or to restrain false doctrine or Church-disturbers Christ is sufficient for this himself How oâ—t hath the Devil preached thus to tye the hands of those that might wound him Would you see any further how he hath play'd this successful game of Over-doing Why he hath done as much by it in Worship and Discipline as almost in any thing When he cannot have Discipline neglected he is an over-zealous spirit in the breasts of the Clergy and he perswades them to appoint men Penance and Pilgrimages and to put the necks of Princes under their feet But if this Tyrannie must be abated he cryes down all Discipline and tels them it is all but Tyrannie and humane Inventions And this confessing sin to Ministers for Relief of Conscience and this open Confessing in the Congregation for a due Manifestation of Repentance and satisfaction to the Church that they may hold Communion with them it is all but Popery and Priestly Domineering And in matter of Worship worst of all When he could not perswade the world to persecute Christ and to refuse him and his Worship the Serpent will be the most zealous Worshipper and saith as Herod and with the same mind Come and tell me that I may worship him He perswades men to Do and Over-do He sets them on laying out their Revenues in sumptuous Fabricks in fighting to be Masters of the Holy Land and Sepulcher of Christ on going Pilgrimages Worshipping Saints Angels Shrines Reliques Adoring the very bread of the Sacrament as God excessive fastings choyce of meats Numbred Prayers on beads Repetitions of words so many Ave Maries Pater Nosters the name Jesus so oft Repeated in a breath so many Holy-days to Saints Canonical hours even at midnight to pray and that in Latine for greater reverence Crossings holy garments variety of prescribed gestures kneeling and worshipping before Images sacrificing Christ again to his Father in the Mass forswearing Marriage living retiredly as separate from the world multitudes of new prescribed Rules and orders of life vowing poverty begging without need creeping to the Cross Holy water and Holy bread carrying Palms kneeling at Altars bearing Candles Ashes In Baptism Crossing Conjuring out the Devil salting spittle oyl taking Pardons Indulgencies and Dispensations of the Pope praying for the Dead perambulations serving God to Merit Heaven or to ease souls in Purgatory doing Works of supererogation with multitudes the like All these hath the Devil added to Gods Worship so zealous a Worshipper of Christ is he when he takes that way Read Mr. Herberts Church Militant of Rome pag. 188 189 190. I could trace this Deceiver yet further and tell you wherein when he could not hinder Reformation in Luthers days he would needs over-do in Reforming But O how sad an example of it have we before our eyes in England Never people on earth more hot upon Reforming Never any deeper engaged for it The Devil could not hinder it by fire and sword when he sees that he will needs turn Reformer as I said before and he gets the Word and cryes down Antichrist and cryes up Reformation till he hath done what we see He hath made a Babel of our work by confounding our languages For though he will be for Reformation too yet his name is Legion he is an Enemy to the one God one Mediator and Head one Faith and one Baptism one heart and lip and one way Unity is the chief butt that he shoots at Is Baptism to be Reformed Christ is so moderate a Reformer that he onely bids Down with the Symbolical Mystical Rite of mans vain addition But the Serpent is a more Zealous Reformer He saith Out with express Covenanting Out with Children They are a corruption of the Ordinance and to others he says Out with Baptism it self We might follow him thus through other Ordinances Indeed he so Overdoes in his Reforming that he would not leave us a Gospel a Ministry a Magistraâ—y to be for Christ an Ordinance no nor a Christ though yet he would seem to own a God and the light of Nature All these with him are Antichristian By this time I hope you see that this way of Over-doing hath another Author then many zealous people do imagine and that it is the Devils common successful trade so that his Agents in State-Assemblies are taught his Policy When you have no other way of un-doing let it be by over-doing And the same way he takes with the souls of particular persons If he see them troubled for sin and he cannot keep them from the knowledge of Christ and free Grace he puts the name of free Grace and Gospel preaching upon Antinomian and Libertine errours which subvert the very Gospel and free Grace it self If he see men convinc't of this and that it is neither common nor Religious Libertinism and sensuality that will bring men to Heaven then he will labour to make Papists of them and to set them on a task of external formalities or macerating their bodies with hurtful fastings watchings and cold as if self-murther were the highest pitch of Religion and God had a pleasure to see his people Torment themselves I confess it is very few that ever I knew to have erred far in Austere usage of their bodies But some I have and especially poor Melancholy Christians that are more easily drawn to deal rigorously with their flesh then others be And such Writings as lately have been published by some English Popish Formalists I have known draw men into this snare