Christ because the Church is the royal seat of Christ he is in it as in his kingdom Apoc. 1. Matth. 28. and walks in the midst of the seven candlesticks is with thē always to the end of the world In respect of lawes because the Church hath heavenly laws given by the King of heaven and earth even the everlasting laws of Charitie to God in Christ 1 Cor. 13. and all the Saints In respect of the plants which are planted in it All Gods people in the Church are like trees planted by the rivers of waters Psal 1.3 but to be transplanted in Gods due season to heaven The Church is the nurcery depending upon the great orchard or garden of heaven where onely no weed grows and therefore is it called the kingdom of heaven In respect of the Inhabitants of the Church They are in their better parts Citizens with the Saints Eph. 3. Gal. 6. Col. 3. Eph. 2. and of the houshold of faith who have their conversation in heaven and sit in Christ in heavenly places In respect of the order and reference that God hath made between heaven and the Church As Jacob said of Bethel so may we of the Church Gen. 28.17 This is none other but the house of God and the gate of heaven As a great house which hath an hall for the family to meet in and chambers to rest in for them who properly belong unto it so is the Church and heaven The Church is the place of repast Joh. 14. and heaven of many mansions for rest Lastly in respect of the use that is made of it As heaven doth help these inferiour bodies three wayes by motion and light and influence So the Church doth help to all that she can reach unto moving up and down Man like a company of pilgrims 1 Pet. 2. and strangers for the gathering together of the body of Christ out of all mankinde It carryed the law out of Sion Esa 2. and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem to bring us poore heathens to be of the inheritance of Christ Psal 2. and to make the uttermost parts of the earth to be his possession It is like the heavens and firmament Psal 19. which declares the Glory of God amongst every speech and language that Christ may rule there It carries light to them that sit in darknesse Lumine Matth. 4. and in the region of the shadow of death giving the light of knowledge as from the face of Jesus Christ and the light of life that others seeing their good works 1 Pet. 2. may glorifie God in the day of their visitation It gives the Influences of grace from their faith hope and charitie Influentia 1 Cor. 1◠to warme the hearts of those that belong to Christ and to help forward their new birth and their growing in grace by the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ Jam. 1. 2 Pet. 3. Seeing therefore that the Church is the royal seat of Christ hath the laws of Christ is a nursery for heaven is Jerusalem which is from above full of heavenly Citizens Gal. 4. is the place of repast for Gods servants before their rest and hath such an heavenly use by her motion light and influence it is no wonder that it should be called the kingdom of heaven Use 1 Let every one of us think of it to our comfort and to our exhortation Be comforted I beseech you to see the glorious priviledges of Gods people that even in this world they dwell in the kingdom of heaven yet in heaven on earth not in heaven Travellers tell us that they that are on the top of the Alpes may see showers under them which they overlooke but they come not at them and if you make use of this priviledge to live in the kingdom of heaven ye may overlook your troubles and not be disjoynted by them The very Philosopher could say out of all well pleasance with his morall and naturall fansies unto the tyrant that beat him in sunder piece-meale Beat Beat Tunde tunde Anaxarchum non tundes thou shalt not beat out Anaxarchus He would keep his heart in the ruines of his body Much more may a Christian keep his life of faith when the outer man and all things belonging unto it doth utterly perish and come to this worlds nothing Use 2 Be exhorted also all you Christians who professe your selves to be members of the Church to live like those that are in the kingdom of heaven Some live in a region of darknesse and some live as in the confines of hell God forbid it should be said so of you Heare that fearfull speech the fearfull who dare not shew themselves for Christ but fear man more then him the unbeleeving who Apoc. 21.8 Apo. 22.15 notwithstanding the offers of grace doe stand out against Christ and not rest upon him for salvation the abominable who thinke and doe abhorred things the murtherers who are cruell against Gods peoples bodies and soules and whoremongers who give themselves to the uncleannesses of body and soule and sorcerers who give themselves to spels enchantments delusions conjurations and witchcrafts to dishonour Christ and Idolaters who thinke to convey Gods worship to him by Saints and Angels or Images or any other superstitious way and therefore doe fall down or do other respects before them with reference to God and all lyers who forge and faine devises in hypocrisie to bring in false wayes in hypocrisie or otherwise are enemies to that truth which belongs to their neighbours shall have their part in the lake which burnes with fire and brimstone which is the second death Take heed and be none of these if you would live in the kingdome of heaven Otherwise the kingdom shall be taken from you notwithstanding your strength and confidence and given to a nation which will bring forth amendment of life answerable to this good kingdome of heaven Secondly the Gospel is valued by the person that trades for it A Merchant man The person that trades for the Gospel This doth represent a true Christian in the Church who is more honoured by the Gospel then the Gospel can be honoured by him Yet the honour of the Gospel upon them seemes to reflect upon it self For as the Merchants of Tyrus are called by Ezechiel the companions of Princes so Christians are Christs fellowes who trade for the Gospel Psal 45.7 which surely shews the worth of it Mark then Christians are Meachants That Christians are Merchants and truely this may easily be demonstrated by comparing what we finde to be proper to Merchants with that which answereth in a Christian state First a Merchant hath his sea his ship his Merchandise and his losses and so hath a Christian His Sea that is the world This tosseth him up and down and he sees the wonders of God in this deep As John saith in another case I saw before
him This was a poor provision Be you wiser and seeing your souls are spirits let them have spirituall provisions out of Gods Word Use 2 Secondly seeing the soul is a spirit joyn the soul to him that is a spirit Simile nutritur simili Every thing is nourished with that which is proportionable unto it The Lamb so soon as it is yeaned runs to the sides and dugs of the Ewe and the Chicken newly hatched covets the warm body and feathers of the Hen without which it thrives not so well so let your souls run to God that is a spirit He is the father of spirits who will provide for all of his image and superscription The Apostle hath an excellent expression He that is joyned or glewed as Joyners do boards to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 It would be a glorious priviledge to be one spirit with God that we may be made partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 in the efficacie of it for our salvation This is the way joyn your souls to the Lord. They are joyned to the world and so they rot in a thousand vanities They are joyned to the flesh and so they perish in sin Oh let them be joyned to the Lord by faith in Christ working by love and then with the whole Church 1 Cor. 12.12 they shall be called Christ and according to their measure they shall fare no worse then Christ did Rom. 8.17 Luk. 24.26 first to suffer and then to enter into Glory Use 3 Thirdly seeing the soul is a spirit think of a better place for it then here You are apt to say with Peter Matth. 17. Master it is good for us to be here let us build Tabernacles Eccles 12. But Solomon tels you that the spirit returnes to him that gave it Let it learn the way now by having an heavenly conversation for it was not made for low places Fire is the driest and lightest element and it desires to be above and therefore it will burn up all combustible matter which lieth in the way So your souls are the divinest parts where should they desire to be Phil. 1. but to be dissolved and to be with Christ therefore secure that place for them Be acquainted with Gods infinite love and mercy in Christ Rest with confidence upon those merits and that intercession which are presented to God the Father in your room Love the Lord and the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ Walk before God 2 Thes 3. Gen. 17. and be upright That when you dye you may be received into an everlasting habitation a place sutable for an high-born spirit Consider the order of creation and disturb it not God hath set the heaven above and the earth beneath and hath so framed us that our heads and our hearts are above to think upon heaven and to love and move to it and our feet and heels on the earth to teach us to set earthly commodities at our heels as the new-born Christians laid their money at the Apostles feet Act. 5. It is fearfull to see how ungodly men do disorder this course They set heaven at their heels and all earthly glory at their head and heart by thought loves and a thousand imbracings as if heaven were below and earth above But take you heed This is not the way to secure your souls they are spirits and should have better places then you lodge them in If you will be so earthy and neglect your own salvation there is a worse place even that where Judas is Act. 1. since he went unto his own place where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Thus you have the nature of the soul now consider the Castle of the soul The Castle of the soul is Gods hands Gods hands into thy hands Mark then that the safety of a soul lies in Gods hands Properly the hand is an outward bodily instrument for actions and executions But when it is referred to God he hath three sorts of hands Correcting Revenging and Protecting hands His correcting hand is spoken of in these words Psal 38.2 Thy hand presseth me sore that is thy correction His revenging hand is spoken of in these words Jud. 2.15 The hand of the Lord was against them for evill that is his corrections and judgements were out against them for their sins But his protecting hand is of two sorts Eternall and Actuall The eternall protecting hand of God is the counsell of his will Of this it is said that the Jews did to Christ whatsoever Gods hand and his counsell determined before to be done and no more This is a safe hand without and above exception for as many as were 〈◊〉 this hand and so ordained to eternall 〈◊〉 believed It will preserve them to his everlasting Kingdome The actuall protecting hand of God is either Extraordinary or ordinary The extraordinary protecting hand is that which he holds over some and but at some times as when it is said Ezek. 1.3 the hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel that is the spirit of prophesie to guide and protect him in his propheticall way The ordinary protecting hand of God is threefold either General provision Psal 104.28 whereof the Psalmist speaketh thou fillest with thy hand every living thing that is thou providest for them or speciall favour whereof Luke speaketh Luk. 1.66 and the hand of the Lord was with him that is Gods speciall favour was with John Baptist from his infancy or the spirit of strength as when it is said of Elias 1 King 18.46 the hand of the Lord was on him that is he strengthened him with boldnesse and protected him against Ahab and Jezabel The issue is this when God doth provide for favour and protect the soul therein lies the safety of it And it is no wonder when you do consider what manner of hands Gods are What manner of hands God hath They are Holy hands They touch nothing in love but they are the better for them As when God sent an Angel with a coal from the Altar to touch the lips of the Prophet Esay Esa 6. he was the better for it and was very willing to go on his propheticall errand so much more when God toucheth our souls shall they be filled with all grace and goodnesse of which they are capable They are loving hands Cant. 2. therefore the Church cries out to Christ put thy hand under As when Ananias put his hands upon the blinde eyes of Paul Act. 9. they cured him and scales fell from his eyes and he saw plainly so when God toucheth our souls acts of grace love and bounty follow For love strives for such acts and all safety They are powerfull hands The little finger of the Lord is above all Rom. 8. therefore if God be on our side who can be against us His hands will guard us by a mighty power in all
thou art subject to the miseries of this life and of the life to come The miseries of this life are all crosses to thy person comfort credit and state as sicknesses sorrows disgraces discomforts both within and without The miseries of the world to come are thy separation from the Lord and his Law the two principles of life for ever As when thy soul is separated from thy body a naturall death is made up so when thy person is separated from God and his word of comfort a spirituall death is made up which begins in this life and is continued for ever and ever Vse Oh my child feare and tremble under this burthen Thou art apt as all others to build up thy way to heaven with untempered morter saying to thy own soule that all is well when all is amisse This makes thee with an hard and impenitent heart to goe on in thy accursed courses But this doctrine of curses will teach thee that thou wert in danger before thou wast borne and ever since Thou mightst justly have been cast into hell before thou didst breath in this open world Thou hast all thy life been under the destruction of sinne and this hath enwrapped thee in the destruction of misery Thou feelest many paines and sicknesses which are but the light flashes of hell fire Thou art like a man condemned to a tormenting and dying death As if a man had a Caldron of boyling lead hang over his head and he starke naked under it First one drop falls upon his head another upon his shoulder another upon his arme another upon his hand another upon his backe another upon his belly another upon his legge upon his foot another which makes him start and shreeke but at the last the whole showre comes which makes him roare and tumble like a wild bull in a net So thou by this volley of curses art first nipt in one part then in another which makes thy joy to be interrupted and thy mirth many times turned into mourning But at last in death and Judgement comes an whole Sea of them which makes weeping howling and gnashing of teeth Weigh it seriously before it be too late It may be that God will leave a blessing behind to make thee search after a deliverance which is the next thing that comes to be skanned But first let me try thy profiting Thou toldest me that thou breakest all Gods commandements according to which thou shouldst serve him Tell me therefore Q. How many wayes doest thou breake them A. Three wayes Q. Which be they A. First in Adam secondly in the pronenesse of my nature thirdly in breaking one I breake them all Q. But the seventh part of time comes but once a weeke how canst thou break the commandement which concernes that every day A. I breake it before it comes and when it is gone Q. How before it comes A. By doing that upon the week day which makes me unfit to keep it when it comes Q. How when it is gone A. By not learning Gods wayes and not walking in his pathes Q. Art thou in danger of Gods curse A. Yes both in my body and in my soule Q. How doth God curse A. By inflicting of punishment Q. What punishment doth he inflict A. A destruction of my body and my soule Q. How doest thou know thy selfe to be destroyed A. When I am not used to that end that God made me for Q. What follows upon this A. A subjection to the miseries of this world and of the world to come Doe not forget how farre thou art gone God made thee thou art made to doe him service thou shouldst serve him as he commands thou breakest all his commands and therefore thou art under the curse and so a more miserable creature then a toade or any serpent if thou be not delivered Tell me then 21. Q. How shalt thou escape this curse A. Onely by Jesus Christ our Lord. Thou answerest rightly Christ is our deliverer from the curse Act. 4.12 for there is no name under heaven whereby thou canst be saved but onely the name of Jesus that is no authoritie power vertue or merit Gal. 3.13 It is he that hath redeemed thee from the curse of the law being made a curse for thee Col. 2.14 15. It is he that blotted out the hand-writing that was against thee and tooke it out of the way nayling it to his crosse and having spoyled principalities and powers made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in himselfe on the crosse and therefore when Paul groveled under the burthen of his sinne he could find no rest for his soule but in the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 7.24 25. and thus must it be with thee therefore it behoves thee to know him If thou didst owe millions of pounds yea and satisfaction to the law by death and hadst but one friend in all the world that would and could undertake to discharge thee from all thou wouldst know him or else thou wert unworthy to have benefit by him So thou must know Christ in his names natures offices and uses by which thou hast saving good by him or else thou art unworthy of him And because this is signified in his names thou must throughly know the sense and vertue of them for thee He is called Jesus Matth. 1.21 because he saves his people from their sins He saves thee three wayes By Ransome by Rescue and by Mortification He saves thee by Ransome by laying down his life for thee Joh. 10.15 Thou shouldst have died the first and second death for ever and ever Christ died the first death and overcame the second for thee He saved thee by Rescue by delivering thee by strong hand When God was satisfied thy enemies the world the flesh and the devill would not let thee goe Luk. 1.71 74 75. Therefore Christ saved thee from thy enemies and from the hands of them that hate thee that thou being delivered from them mightst serve him without feare of them all the dayes of thy life in holinesse and righteousnesse before him He saveth thee by Mortification by killing of sinne of thee least thou be killed in sinne When thou art ransomed and delivered yet sinne sticks closer to thee then thy skinne Therefore to perfect thy salvation Christ strengthens thee with might by his spirit in the inner man Ephs 3.16 17. Rom. 8.13 and dwels in thy heart by faith that thou mayst mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the spirit He is called Christ because he is anointed Psal 2.2 Col. 2.9 This anointing is his having the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily He was not onely made partaker of the divine nature as we are but he was full God and full man personally united Joh. 3.34 and so he received not the spirit by measure but was anointed with the oyle of gladnesse above his fellowes Psal 45.7 The reasons why he was anointed were that
proportion and thy eyes being exalted and clarified thou shalt see beside this great Leviathan creeping things or sinnes innumerable For as in a train of gunpowder set one grain on fire and all will be in a blaze so let thy soul be fired with godly sorrow for one sinne and thou shalt quickly see those thou never sawest before Fourthly thou maist finde them out by bringing sinne to a propimity or neernesse As sinners put farre from them the evill day so they put as farre as they can from them the sight of sinne When they do it they are loath to see what they do because it is a work of darknesse It is a bastard brood betwixt Satan and a wicked soul and therefore they remove it into the Country as farre as they can because they would not see it themselves nor suffer others to see it But bring it to a neernesse and that which seemed no sinne will appeare to be a sinne and what seemed a little one will be a very great A man upon the top of an high hill looks as little as a childe but bring him down and you shall see his proportion So bring sinne to a present view as it wounds the conscience defaceth Gods image and hindereth our traffick with our God we shall see it big enough to a miracle in it self and all the brats and broods of many secret ones which are as a retinue and hangs upon it Fifthly thou maist finde them out by declining such ways as bring the judgement of God upon thy soul If because thou art filthy God say be filthy still and because thou wilt not see God give thee over to blindnesse of minde thou wilt see but a few of thy sins till destruction come like an armed man It was a fearfull speech hear ye indeed Esa 6.9 10. but understand not and ye see indeed but perceive not Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted Even so it is a lamentable thing that Gods judgement should seal thy eyes up from seeing thy sinnes for then thou maist suddainly be wasted and made desolate and removed farre away from God Therefore if thou would'st discover thy secret sinnes keep off this judgement of God by sinning against conscience Conscience is Gods deputy and the affront that is offered unto it is offered to God who gave it authority over thee Sinne against it and thou sinnest against Gods officer and God cannot but take it as an unworthy act It makes him angry brings his judgement and then where art thou Thy eyes are blinded thy heart is hardened thy sinnes like Philistims are about thee and thou seest them not Therefore decline this thunderbolt of judgement and God will be eyes to thy blinde soul to see secret sinnes Lastly thou maist finde out thy secret sinnes by not believing the world and the wayes of it If thou believe the world that will praise and flatter thee and offer thee so much profit pleasure Excellens sensibile destruit sensum and honour that the splendour of these will dazle thy eyes and hinder the sight of thy secret sinnes There are none that live in strong Garisons and feel not miseries abroad where sight is more cleer but are so flattered and fawned upon with the lust of the eye the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life to patching painting and a thousand disguises besides other voluptuous sins that their eyes are put out from seeing some open and all secret sins Hence is it that they swim in the Kingdome of pleasure and with their eyes to heaven are going as fast as they can to hell in a feather-bed But take heed believe not the world and thou wilt have leisure to see that and those secret sinnes which will make thy heart ake Thus have I discovered some means by which you may know your secret sinnes It may be now a way is broken open better light may discover better helps Yet in the mean time take these and use them in Gods strength to the glory of God and to the humbling of thy soul But What we must doe when we have found out secret sinnes it may be you will ask me when I have found them what shall I do with them In generall you must make head against them Let them not rest in you as in their proper places but groan under their burthen complain of them to God cast off what you can and use meanes to mortifie the rest But more particularly Zach. 13.1 look to Christ the fountain opened for sinne and for uncleannesse When Alexander the Great saw Jaddus the high Priest comming towards him out of Jerusalem in all his Priestly attire he of reverence spared the City and when God sees you come towards him in the garments of your brother Christ made yours by faith out of love to him Psal 45. whose garments smel of Myrrhe Aloes and Cassia he will spare you We reade that when Antonius the Roman Oratour did uncover the shoulders of Aquileus before the Senate he caused the sentence of death to be reversed from him Much more when you shew the fresh bleeding wounds and merits of Christ rested upon by faith before God your judge he will take off the sentence of death from you pronounced both against open and secret sins and give you life Therefore in the bowels of Jesus Christ take a double prospect First cast your eyes down into your selves and see what you can all your secret sins whose guilts gape for vengeance as well as open being as contrary to Gods nature Next lift up your eyes to heaven and see Christ appearing with all his merits as your Surety and Advocate and making request for you and rest upon him with confidence as those that are weary and heavie laden under the burthen of sinne and are willing to honour the father in him his sonne and the work is past neither open nor secret sins shall appear against you to your confusion But now at length you must not forget Davids Act about this Object that is Act cleanse me his prayer that God would cleanse him Hear a word of this Sinnes have a pollution That even secret sinnes have a pollution as well as other sins from which we must desire cleansing That other sinnes have a pollution is visible enough from many Texts and other grounds The Text doth speak Psal 51.2 Ezech. 16. Wash me from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sinne and makes a fearfull description of the pollution of sinne and compares it to the vomit of a Dog and myre of a Sow 2 Pet. 2.22 yea and makes God look with an ill eye upon his own till they be washed Joh. 13.8 As to other grounds the Father of sin is an unclean spirit Matth. 12. and the mother of it an
saist He is that Almightie one and so he is for God saith to Abraham Gen. 17.1 I am God Almightie and Jeremy calles him Jer. 32.18 19. The great and mightie God great in Counsell and mightie in strength Almightie is one mightie to doe all or one that is all-sufficient for all things in himselfe and for us This Almightinesse or All-sufficiency stands in his skill in his will and in his power He is Almightie in skill to know all things Almightie in will to will all things that are good and Almightie in power to doe all things according to his will Were he not Almightie all these waies he could not be self-sufficiently blessed in himselfe neither could he be almightily sufficient for us Were he not Almightie in skill he could not almightily will according to an almightie knowledge Were he not Almightie in will he could not almightily doe according to an almightie knowledge and will Were he not Almightie in power were he never so Almightie in skill and will he could not be an all-sufficient worker for his own and our blessednesse But when these three things meet his knowing all things his willing all things good and doing all things according to his will nothing can lye between him and his own blessednesse nothing can hinder us from our blessednesse in him if we lye in his rode Vse The serious thought of this should my child humble direct and comfort thee It should humble thee under the mightie hand of God Power breeds feare and fear humilitie God made his power known to Job in the wind horse earth-quake and Leviathan Job 42.6 And then he abhorred himselfe and repented in dust and ashes Act. 12. As when the men of Tyrus and Sidon heard that Herod would wage warre with them they knowing that they were nourished with the Kings bread feared his power so when thou hearest of this Almightinesse thou must not so much feare them that kill the body Matth. 10. as feare him that is able to cast body and soule into hell if thou approach not to him with due obedience Againe thou must be directed from hence to labour to feele this Almightie power of God in thy body and soule for thy sanctification and salvation Paul prayes for the Ephesians Eph. 1.19 20. that they may know what is the exceeding greatnesse of his power to us-ward that beleeve according to the working of his mightie power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead And how is this Surely onely by feeling that as God raised up Christ so by their fellowship in and with them he doth raise up them from the death of sinne to the life of grace The good Lord grant that it may be thus with thee that as the power of that Almightie one did raise up the Lord Jesus so thou maist find thy selfe raised in and from him to such a new life as may appeare before God with acceptance Lastly thou maist have singular comfort also from this meditation in any adversitie that may come upon thee For this Almightie one can change thy vile body Phil. 3. and make it like unto his glorious body according to the mightie power by which he is able to subdue all things unto himself What though by affliction thy face be withered with weeping thy body crusted like a potsheard and burnt to ashes yet this Almightie one is able to raise thee up in the latter day Joh. 6. and to make those eyes of thine to see thy Redeemer Job 19. when thou shalt arise for thy selfe to the glory of Gods grace and thy everlasting comfort Next here thou tellest me how God hath manifested his Almightinesse God made all things By making and governing of all things That this Almightie God made all things doth appeare in Genesis Gen. 1. and 2.4 5. Esa 44.24 and God saith by Esay I am the Lord that maketh all things that doth stretch forth the heavens alone and spreadeth abroad the earth by my selfe To make all things is to give all things their being God gives the heavens to be the earth to be and all creatures in heaven and earth their severall beings And doe but weigh that it cannot be otherwise For the world was neither made by chance nor by nature Not by chance For as thou maiest see an excellent order in every thing and chance is an enemy to order so maist thou discerne set purpose in every thing All creatures have every thing provided of purpose to perfect them An eye hath a colour an eare a sound a palate a tastable thing and a smell savours yea brute beasts have fodder and man hath heaven and earth of purpose for body and soul Neither is it made by nature For then as nothing could be done above nature the contrary whereof thou maist perceive in the very butter-flies painted wings and the little gnats trunk which can pierce and draw bloud thorough a tough horses skin so could nothing be done against nature but thou maist observe the contrary Josh 10. for the Sunne stood still in Gibeon and the Moone in the valley of Ajalon in the daies of Joshuah and the Sun went ten degrees backward as was to be seene on the diall of Ahaz yea thou readest of an Eclipse of the Sun at the death of Christ when the Moon was at the full which was quite against nature If therefore the world was neither made by chance nor by nature thou mayst justly conclude that the Almightie God made all things Vse Therefore my deare child learn how to use and feare to abuse We must use all the creatures from God any of Gods creatures Thou must aske Gods leave to use any of them we hold all in God and from God and have no freedom to use them but as we have leave from him Godlesse people account every creature within their power their own and because they have a creatures right and a civill right by the laws and compacts of men they think they have an absolute right without dependance Therefore they never looke to God but say with Nabal shall I take my meat 1 Sam. 25. and my bread and my drinke which I have provided for my servants and give it unto strangers whom I know not from whence they come or whither they go But it must be otherwise with thee Thou hast the use of the Sun Moon and Stars heaven earth and all their furniture God made them all therefore thou must not dreame of an absolute right but humbly pray that thou mayst have libertie to use them under God without which thou canst have no sound comfort Besides We must not abuse any of the creatures thou must feare to abuse any of them because they are the good creatures of God Wilt thou dare to abuse the Kings stuffe or furniture of his house or those provisions which he hath made for his servants How then wilt thou dare
he might be a fit Prophet Heb. 7.25 Joh. 1.18 Ephes 1.17 1 Cor. 1.30 Esa 53. Priest and King to perfect thy salvation As he was a Prophet he came out of his Fathers bosome to reveale his will unto thee that so he might be thy wisdome to shew thee the way to heaven by him Heb. 7. As he was a Priest Rom. 8. he offered himselfe in sacrifice for thee and still maketh request for thee at the right hand of God As he was a King he had all authority and power committed to him to rule over thee and overrule thy enemies Thus nothing lies in the way to hinder him from being the Prince of thy salvation by mortification as a King and Prophet by ransome as a Priest and by rescue as a King He is called our Lord Act. 10.36 Rom. 7.25 Phil. 2.8.9 10.11 as one that hath power to maintaine that salvation which he hath procured thee because by purchase from God for thee and conquest over the world the flesh and the devill he doth possesse thee as his owne 1 Cor. 6.19 20. and therefore must give an account to him Thus thou seest him that saveth thee from the Curse Vse Therfore my dear child build thy self upon Jesus Christ our Lord upon Christ for salvation for dominion All his garments smell of Myrrhe Aloes and Cassia Psal 45.8 That which covers thee and comforts thee frō Christ is preservative as Myrrhe compurgative as Aloes comfortative as sweet smelling Cassia Christ wil not only comfort thee from guilt but purge and preserve thee from the body of death Without Christ nothing can purge thee Mich. 6.6 7. Luk. 18.11 12. Esa 1.11 12 13 14. Hypocrites will runne to thousands of Rams and tenne thousands of Rivers of Oyle Moralists will run to their civill carriages Formalists will runne to the outward acts of Gods Ordinances but nothing will doe thee good without Christ If thou seeke to Christ only then all things succeed to this end The Holy Ghost purgeth by way of infusion Faith by way of application Repentance by way of disposition Holinesse by way of repression and mortification Zach. 13.1 but Christ is the fountaine whence all proceeds Would'st thou have peace with God Rom. 5.1 It must be through our Lord Jesus Christ Would'st thou have joy Rom. 5.11 It must be through our Lord Jesus Christ Would'st thou have grace raigne Rom. 5.21 It must be by Jesus Christ our Lord. Would'st thou be justified Phil. 3.8 It must be by the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. Would'st thou walke in Christ Col. 2.6 As thou hast received the Lord Jesus Christ so walke in him Would'st thou have grace and peace 1 Thess 1.1 It must be from the Lord Jesus Christ Wouldst thou have any saving grace 2 Pet. 1.8 It must be by fruitfulnesse in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Still whole Christ must be rested on or it will doe thee no good When a wise Physician gives a certaine quantity to purge rebelling humours thou must take it all so when God gives the Lord Jesus Christ thou must apply him all Christ cannot be divided Jesus cannot be Jesus except he be a Lord. He was anointed to be a King as well as a Priest and a Prophet and without the exercise of all his Offices he saves not one soule There is not the vilest sinner in the Church but would have Jesus He would runne to his salvation because he is convinced that he cannot be saved without him but they cannot abide the Lord Jesus who must rule and raigne Ob. It may be thou maist thinke that thou runnest to the Lord Jesus Christ daily Sol. If thou doest then as a man cannot plunge himselfe into a fountaine daily and not be cleanner or as a man cannot live among sweet odours and not be sweeter so nor can a man runne unto and use Christ daily but he shall be better Ob. It may be thou maist thinke that thou shalt not be the worse though thou lie under the burden of some sinne because we cannot be quite rid of the body of death But I would have thee know that there are three sorts of sinners Sol. 1 Some that neither know the sinnes they might know nor desire to know them These can not make use of Christ because they have no sight of their foulenesse and therefore they can neither renounce it nor goe to the fountaine to cleanse it Some know them and when they are convinced Deut. 29.19 20. sigh to know them yet live in them wilfully under hope of mercy These cannot look for salvation for God will not be mercifull to such Some are such sinners as Paul was These are in the way of salvation by Christ Rom. 7.15 1 Cor. 9.27 If thou aske what manner of sinner Paul was I tell thee that he was such a sinner as hated sinne and cared not who knew what was in him and practised great works of mortification Rom. 7.24 and accounted himselfe a base wretch the least of Saints the greatest of sinners and one that walked humbly under the sense of finne and one that made diligent search after Christ to save him and when he had found him thanked God for whole Christ even for the Lord Jesus Christ Be thou such a finner through Gods grace and I shall not feare the Curse of the Law which lies upon thee for sin Now tell me 22. Q. What is Jesus Christ A. He is the eternal Son of God made man This is also Gods truth What Jesus Christ is for when Christ was baptized and when he was transfigured a voyce came from heaven saying This is my well beloved Sonne Matt. 3.17 Matt. 17.5 And that he is the Eternall Sonne of God appears because he was in the beginning Joh. 1.1 that is when God made Time he was before God made that Time to wit in eternity and so was God This crowned Peters faith in the name of all the Apostles when he said Thou art Christ Matt. 16.16 Matt. 3. Luk. 3. the Sonne of the living God And that he was made man the Genealogies prove And tha the was the Son of God made man appears from Johns testimony The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us Joh. 1.14 and we beheld his glory the glory of the onely begotten of the Father and from the Testimony of the Angel who saith to Mary Luk. 1.35 an holy thing shall be borne of thee which shall be called the Sonne of God 1 Joh. 3.1 not nuncupatively by name onely but shall be the Sonne of God As Gods people are called the sonnes of God by adoption and are so so Christ by nature As borne of the Virgin so he was made man as the Sonne of God so was he God The Son of God must be thy Saviour Luk. 3.38 because he might give thee what thou wantest Thou wast
all thy debts are payed If any man were bound for thee and cast into prison and after enjoying the libertie of a free subject thou mayst conclude that all thy debts are payd so mayst thou rest thy soule that God is well pleased and satisfied with what his sonne hath done for thee when thou seest by miracles acts and many testimonies that he is risen from the dead Vse Therefore my deare child feed thy soule comfortably with these natures of thy blessed Saviour and with the uses he made of them for thy good He was man to performe lowly offices he was God to performe exalted offices of love Is he to dye an accursed death He is a man Rom. 8.3 in the similitude of sinfull flesh Psal 24. Is he to rise againe He is the King of Glory the Lord mighty in battell who knows how to vanquish the last enemy 1 Cor. 15. death as well as any that appeared before He that is thy suretie so able so willing will satisfie to the utmost farthing He that is thy Advocate so faithfull so wonderfull in counsell will not leave any of thy worke behind till he have brought thee a Certificate of thy full discharge When thou repentest and art ready to be swallowed up of sorrow let thy poore soule rest here and thou shalt have joy by beleeving and come with confidence and boldnesse to the throne of grace But it may be that the extent of this benefit may something damp thy spirit Therefore tell me 25. Q. Whether all men are saved by Christs death A. No onely they are saved which have a true faith Right thus doth the Scripture teach If all were saved it were happy for the children of darknesse and sons of Belial Hell should soone be emptie and heaven fuller then ever God meant it God should be made the greatest tyrant in the world if he should require such repentance faith mortification Godly living of some and yet save all by Christs death who never touched any of Gods holy rules with their little finger Therefore certainly this salvation must be limited to them that beleeve Thus doth Christ Joh. 3.16.18.36 Whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish and he that beleeveth on him is not condemned and he that beleeveth on the Sonne hath everlasting life and Luke saith That at Antioch when Paul and Barnabas preached as many as were ordained to eternall life beleeved This was the receit that Philip gave to the Eunuch Act. 13.48 Act. 8. Act. 16. and Paul and Silas gave to the keeper of the Prison and it must be thine For faith is the eye the foot the hand the mouth of thy soule yea it is all in all to give thee union with Christ for life and salvation It is the eye of thy soule therefore God saith by the Prophet Looke upon me and be ye saved Esa 45.22 O ye ends of the earth that is beleeve in me It is the foot of thy soule therefore Christ saith Joh. 6.35 He that comes to me shall never hunger that is he that beleeves in me It is the hand of thy soule therefore John saith Joh. 1.12 So many as received him to them he gave a free right to be the sons of God that is beleeved in him It is the mouth of the soule therefore Christ saith Except ye eate the flesh of the Sonne of man Joh. 6.53 and drink his bloud ye have no life in you that is except ye beleeve in him Yea it is all in all for uniting thee to Christ therefore John saith 1 Joh. 3. Rom. 1. Heb. 10. Gal. 2.20 Joh. 14. He that hath the Sonne hath life and Paul saith By faith we live because it is that excellent Instrument which unites us to Christ who is both our way truth and life Vse Therefore my deare child be not beguiled with the deceitfulnesse of Satan as too many are who dreame of the saving of all Christians if they doe but professe to beleeve in Christ upon a generall knowledge of the grounds of Christianity No no thou must have faith and thou must have a true and a living faith if thou wouldest have thy salvation by Christ The faith that ordinary professors at large dreame of is an easie way to heaven They may swallow downe all their sins with greedinesse and goe thither at an houres warning It is but knowing and assenting to the truth of Christianity and saying upon presumptuous grounds that Christ died for them and they hope to be saved by him as well as the precisest of them all But thou wilt find it an harder worke to have a true faith of Gods elect For thou mayst find that when sinners are brought into the straits of death sometimes they can not beleeve and sometimes they dare not beleeve They can not beleeve for their lives as Francis Spira who cried out that he could no more beleeve then the Devill If a man will ever runne he will runne when he runs for his life and if a man will ever beleeve he will beleeve when he beleeves for his life But poore sinners when the sight of their owne unworthinesse and Satans temptations are let loose upon them can not beleeve for their lives Sometimes they dare not beleeve as wicked Christians who see they must lose all if they beleeve in Christ They must lose father mother wife children houses lands and all sublunary contentments if they beleeve in Christ As a man that hath gotten a great deale by greedy scraping ravening and holding dares not beleeve that Covetousnesse is Idolatry for then he shall be undone So dare not a professor at large beleeve in Christ Phil. 3. because he knows that he must account all things losse and dogs-meat for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ and him crucified He must deny all his rotten grounds of confidence as I keep my Church I am neither whore nor thiefe I wrong no man I am a good neighbour I have a good heart to God-ward I have a good meaning though I doe not pray as others yet God knows my heart though I cannot say as others yet I know the way to heaven as well as the best I doe as I would be done unto and the like he must I say deny all these rotten grounds which he dare not doe for then he sees that he shall be a dunghill and hath nothing to please himselfe in Get thou therefore true faith even the faith not of the world but of the Gospel In this I 'le helpe thee as I can and therefore tell me 26. Q. What is this true faith of Gods elect A. It is the resting of the soule upon Christ for salvation Understand this well as thou lovest the life of thy soule What true Faith is Some will tell thee that it is an assenting to the truth of the Gospel It is not assenting to the truth Jam. 2. and in truth thou must agree to the
truth of the Law and Gospel also yet Devils and wicked men may doe thus much and yet not have saving faith Yea what thou doest not actually know and assent unto now thou must have a prepared and ready mind to know and agree to it when God shall reveale it unto thee from the Scriptures Others will tell thee that this faith is a full perswasion of thy heart that what God hath promised in Christ he will make it good to thee It is not a full perswasion But take heed for this will be a rise for fearefull temptations Put case the Devill should tempt thee and say If thou be a Christian indeed thou hast true saving faith If thou have this faith thou art fully perswaded that thou art one of Christ's saved ones Tell me then art thou fully perswaded thus If the ground should now open and swallow thee up quite if thou wert now to give an account of all things that are done in thy flesh whether they are good or evill art thou fully perswaded that without more faith repentance obedience thou shalt go to the heaven of heavens What saist thou now faith Satan art thou fully perswaded If not thou hast no faith if thou hast no faith thou art no good Christian therefore go with me to thy own place Where art thou now Act. 1. How is thy soul perplexed It is true that thou must labour to be fully perswaded for God saith 2 Pet. 1.10 make thy calling and election sure and it is proper to faith to work this full perswasion in Gods people at many turnes but there is a vast difference betwixt the working of faith in it self and the work of it in thee Thy handkerchief band cuffs or any part of thy linnen may be very white yet put it into an Ink-pot and it will soon be made black So true faith works full perswasion of it self but put it into thy heart where there is too much flesh and unbelief and doubting and self-policy and the work of faith is too much too long too often hindred which makes thee cry out Lord I beleeve help my unbeleef Besides nothing can work this full perswasion but faith for faith is an argument to conclude it Therefore Paul saith Ephe. 1.13 that after ye beleeved ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise as if he should say after the spirit had wrought faith in your hearts for faith is a fruit of the spirit the same spirit took faith Gal. 5. and thence concluded to your souls as with a seal that the promise of salvation did belong unto you Thou seest then that faith is one thing and a full perswasion is another a full perswasion is nothing but a conclusion or consequence that issueth from true faith Therefore pitch not upon that description of faith Build then upon that which thou hast given It is a resting upon Christ for salvation that it is the resting of thy soul upon Christ for salvation Thou would'st fain be saved and lookest through all heaven and earth to satisfie thy weary soul with sinne thou findest Christ and seest his fitnesse and fulnesse and then resolvest upon him onely and restest upon him for thy salvation This is called confidence affiance trusting but this is the plain English sense Esa 10.20 a resting upon Christ This is described by staying upon the Lord 2 Cor. 3.4 Psal 37.5 Joh. 3.15 16. by trusting through Christ to God-ward by rowling our way upon the Lord by beleeving upon Christ and in Christ but the plain sense of all is 1 Joh 3.23 Eph. 3.12 thy resting upon Christ Because Christ is Gods onely ordinance to keep thee out of hell Who shall save thee Christ How shall he save thee By his holy death rightly applied Whom shall he save Those that trust in him or rest upon him Joh. 5. and so honour the Father in the Sonne If thou do thus thou shalt be guarded by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5.9 Put case that the mouth of hell were opened and thou wert ready to be tumbled into it Thou seest Christ set by God like the tree of life in the way to stay thee from that bottomlesse pit and thou rowlest thy self upon him and resolvest there to live and die what ever comes this is faith Mat. 16.18 Christ is called A Rock oftentimes in the Scripture Put case that a man were cast into the sea he spies a rock and swims to it as fast as he can one wave after another beates him back yet his face is to the rock and he will not give over He strives and strives and at last he gets hold of it There he prayes and cries and looks to heaven and resolves there to live and there to die So thou art cast into a sea of grief for thy sea of sinne Thou espiest Christ thy rock fastened by God for him hath God the Father sealed to keep thee from perishing Joh. 6. Thou hungerest after him thou makest to him with the strength of thy heart Thou art beaten off again and again by many temptations and art ever and anon ready to give over yet at last by the mercy of thy God thou dost imbrace him and grasp him Then thou criest out as Jacob Gen. 28. I will not let thee go without a blessing Thou resolvest to live and die with him in whose bosome thou now doest lye this is thy faith And though sometimes thou hast not a full perswasion yet in this resting there is more or lesse for thy soul An old man can rest upon a staffe and so can a young man and so can a palsie man one weakly another strongly another shakingly yet all rest upon it according to the measure of strength So a weak faith a stronger faith and the strongest faith of all can rest upon Christ according to the measure of their faith There is a latitude in resting to hold up a fainting soul One rests weakly upon Christ yet he rests another strongly yet he doth but rest Vse Therefore my dear childe finde this faith this true and living faith to be in thee without it no salvation with it are all things belonging to faith and godlinesse This faith makes thee one with Christ and Christ with thee and so bringeth thee to suck honey out of the rock This faith brings Christ in the mouth of it to God the Father who therefore can deny thee nothing This faith makes arguments out of the word of God to conclude convincingly for a powerfull holinesse He that is in Christ must be a new creature but I am in Christ by faith Rom. 6. He that is in Christ must be led with boldnes to the throne of grace Col. 3. but I am in Christ by faith He that is dead with Christ must not live to sin but I by faith am dead with Christ He that is risen with Christ
on of water that doth forgive thy sins nor doing of it in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost but it is God that doth it for the merits of Christ and by the assistance of the holy Ghost and sealeth it to thee in the covenant of Baptisme if thou keep it according to the measure of grace given 32. Q. What benefit hast thou by the Supper of the Lord A. The body and bloud of Christ verily and indeed taken and received by my beleeving soul Mark this comfortable benefit by the Lords Supper The benefit of the Lords Supper Thy body receives the bread and wine Thy soul receives the body and bloud of Christ by beleeving God offers him in a promise this is my body this is my bloud and thou canst not receive a thing in a promise but by beleeving it If I promise to give thee houses and lands and seal a conveyance of them to thee thou canst not receive it but by beleeving my words and conveyance so it is with thee in this Sacrament Christ in respect of his bodily presence is in heaven for they are not to receive him Act. 3.21 till the time of the restitution of all things yet in the Sacrament we have his body and bloud taken and received As a maried woman hath her husband one flesh and heart with her though he be a thousand miles off Prov. 2. by vertue of the Covenant of God which they made so by vertue of the covenant and promise of God in the Sacrament though Christ be in heaven and thou upon the earth thou hast his body and bloud A man may be present in a place or to a place In a place as thou art here with me To a place as Paul was absent in body 1 Cor. 5. but present in spirit to the Corinthians that is by his Apostolicall spirit power and authority So is Christs body and bloud present to the receivers of the Sacrament faithfully When the Sun shines full upon our window we say that the Sun is come into the house yet it is not the Sun but the shining of it so we say that Christs body and bloud is in the Sacrament yet it is not Christs body and bloud carnally bloudily but the Rayes of his person and merits to the comfort of thy soul Every thing is received by us as it is perceived of us Thou receivest a colour by the eye because that perceives it Thou receivest a sound by the ear because that perceives it Thou receivest a scent by the nose because that perceives it Thou receivest savourie things by the taste because that perceives it Thou receivest the Revolution of the heavens by the understanding because that perceives it but thou receivest Christ in the Sacrament none of these wayes Thou seest him not feelest him not tastest him not hearest him not smellest him not understandest not how bread and wine both before in 1 Cor. 10.16 1 Cor. 11.27 28. and after consecration can be the naturall or glorified body and bloud of Jesus Christ and yet be bread and wine yet set thy faith on work upon Gods promise and thou canst truly receive Christ because thou perceivest him by faith and no otherwise He is given to thee as he may satisfie thee that desires him but thou desirest him to satisfie not a corporal but a spirituall hunger Joh. 6.35 36.62.64 Joh. 6.63 He is given as he may do the good but it is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing Ob. If thou think that though his naturall flesh profits nothing yet his glorified flesh would Sol. Christ tels thee that it is his naturall body that comforts thee in the Sacrament not his glorified for Christ saith this is my body which is broken for thee this is my bloud which is shed for thee and I am sure that his glorified body was not thus dealt withall Ob. If thou ask me why the bread and wine consecrated in the Sacrament should then be called the body and bloud of Christ Sol. I tell thee it is not because it is properly so but first because of the Sacramentall union between the signe and the thing signified by Gods pact and covenant If thou receive the signe faithfully 1 Cor. 10.16 thou shalt have a reall communion with Christ by promise Next because of the change of the bread and wine from common to holy use Though there be not a substantiall change of them yet is there a change in use in name and in honour In use it is not used as common bread and wine but as the Supper of the Lord. In name during the time it is not called bread and wine but the body and bloud of Christ In honour It is used by the faithfull to give a reall communion with Christs body and bloud Use Therefore my dear childe make speciall use of this sweet benefit Who would not joy in such a communion Who would not be glad when he comes unto it Who except fools or mad men would not cashier all wicked society for this with Christ Nay if thou love thy soul and thy Christ the Saviour of it thou must abandon it As David said Away from me ye wicked Psal 119. I will keep the commandements of my God so thou must say away ye wicked I will have communion with the body and bloud of Christ Be of his minde that thought one dayes fellowship with Christ to be more worth then all the world But remember that thy soul must be a beleeving soul or else thou wilt never draw water out of this well suck honie out of this Rock There are thousands in the Church who presume to come to the Sacrament and think they may have fellowship with Christ yet keep their old sins their old fellowship also who never look what faith they have to carrie Christ home But what ever they do be thou sure to follow Gods will and my counsell about it forsake all and follow Christ If thou say that thou maist come to the Sacrament long enough before thou be assured that thou doest take and receive the bodie and bloud of Christ I le tell thee that I have observed two wayes whereby thou maist get some comfortable witnesse in thy soul of it First by the Spirit of Christ His bodie and bloud were never dis-united from his divine nature How we may be assured that we receive Christ in the Sacrament Ezek. 1.21 Therefore where his body and bloud goes his spirit goes along with it As the Prophet saith the spirit of the horses were in the wheels so the spirit of Christ is in his body and bloud to make them act for thy good Doest thou then finde his spirit Mark what Paul saith where the spirit of Christ is there is a killing vertue to subdue the flesh Rom. 8.9 10 11. and a quickning vertue to raise you from the death of sinne to the life of grace If it
Job 21.14 Rom. 6. depart from me I desire not the knowledge of thy laws I will sinne that grace may abound 1 Cor. 15. let us â— at and drink for to morrow we shall die But let it not be so with thee Let thy soul move to God against sinne by confession and suits for pardon For grace by petitions and thankesgiving yea and for all other blessings that thou maist acknowledge him the fountain of them serve God with joyfulnes and gladnes of heart for the aboundance of all things Deu. 28.47 Use Thus maist thou my childe conceive what prayer is and therefore be sure that thine be such The wicked are ready to say Job 21.15 what is the Almighty that we should serve him Eph. 6.18 And what profit should we have if we should pray unto him But let thy soul alwayes move to God with all religion against sinne and for grace 1 Thes 5.17 If thy prayers be like the golden sockets of the holy lights boyling with speculations and not like the Bowles of the Altar full of the liquor of heavenly religion they will prove but like the Aegyptian flesh-pots reeking out the hot vapours of the onyons and garleek of thy own vain heart If they be fair words of uncharitable hearts they are like Ezekiahs bloudy pots Ezek. 24.6 that boyl with the scum of rust and lust But if they be the interpreters of a broken and bleeding soul moving to God they shall be Zacharies pots Zach. 14.20 and the bowles of the Altar sending up sweet incense which shall fill the whole heart with the savour as the house was filled with the odour of Maries oynment Joh. 12.3 The moving of thy feet to the assemblies of Gods people the moving of thy body by kneeling and beating thy breast and lifting up of hands and eyes to heaven the moving of thy tongue and lips will be nothing without this moving of thy heart and soul for fellowship with God in Christ Oh let thy heart move against sinne O Lord it hath oppressed me undertake for me My sinne in Adam my sinne of nature my sins of life in thought word and deed are before thee O pardon them for Christ his sake Let thy heart move for grace O Lord I want thy preventing grace thy assisting grace thy pardoning grace thy sanctifying grace thy sealing grace thy persevering grace Oh give them for Christ from Christ or else I die and perish Let thy heart move for all blessings O Lord I have nothing but under thee from thee Thou hast given me a naturall right to meat drink and apparel health peace and libertie Oh give me the right of a childe of an heir and accept my bodie and soul as holy living and acceptable sacrifices in Jesus Christ thy Sonne in whom thou art well pleased The God of heaven enlarge thy heart and give thee by his helping spirit Rom. 8.26 27. to vent thy soul with groanes and sighes that cannot be expressed These God that searcheth the heart and knowes the minde of the spirit will understand to thy eternall peace 37. Q. Where canst thou more fully learn the matter of prayer A. In that which is commonly called the Lords prayer The Lords prayer is the matter of prayer Thy blessed Saviour made many prayers which may bee called the Lords prayers but there is one which he hath set down as a doctrinall matter of prayer Matth. 6.9 when he saith after this manner pray ye and as a formall prayer when he saith Luk. 11.2 when ye pray say Our Father which is more peculiarly called the Lords prayer This is a brief comprehension of all confessions suits for or against of all intercessions and praises This hath the best authoritie in the world the wisedome of God the Son of God the onely beloved of God who is in the bosome of the Father and so of Gods nearest Court and nearest counsell This must give the graines of weight to all thy Petitions without which they will be found too light Vse Therefore my dear childe learn to pray from this thy blessed master Joh. 3.31 Christ that is from heaven is above all earthly masters will learn thee earthly prayers but he that is from heaven will learn thee heavenly Joh. 1. He is full of grace and truth for the perfections of thy understanding and of thy will He is the way wherein all thy prayers must walk to God Joh. 16.23 To aske in his name is to ask salvation and this is to ask himself which he cannot deny To ask in his name is to use his mediation and this is the right way to the throne of grace God the Father bears singular love to him Matth. 3.17 and and the efficacie of his merits are such as if they be presented in prayer they are powerfull and prevailing Revel 8.2 as the golden Altar before the throne on which are offred the prayers of all the Saints Wouldst thou have any grace learn of Christ to pray Wouldst thou forsake any sinne learn of Christ to pray Prayer is a most important dutie Dan. 6. Daniel chose it rather then to avoid Lions and David gave himself unto prayer Other duties are for certain seasons but this must must be continually in habit or act Luk. 18.1 Thou shalt finde thy self hardly drawn to prayer Easie businesses we are easily drawn unto because they are of quick dispatch but weightie businesses stick as the flaying of an Oxe at the head Thou must have many motives to draw thee to pray Christs command Christs promise Christs example and Christs doctrine This shews the weight of this dutie and how necessary it is to learn the matter of it from thy best Master Ob. Thou must think that every good Christian hath abilitie to pray and that therefore thou needest not learn Zach. 12.10 especially considering the promise I will powr out upon them the spirit of grace and supplication Sol. But understand that there is a double power and abilitie an inward power by which the heart moves and goes out of it self after God for all good This all good Christians have from the Spirit which they vent Rom. 8.26 by groanes and sighes which cannot bee expressed an outward power by which they are able distinctly to expresse the motions of their hearts about fit matter This they have not all neither hast thou Therefore must thou be willing to learn it from this blessed summe of Christ even all things to be hoped for I tell thee that it is much abused by three sorts of persons Ignorant persons who understand it not Impenitent persons who practise it not and carelesse and superstitious persons who minde it not in sence and power but rest in the emptie repetition of the words Be thou none of these know the words and sense of it use it as a penitent beleever and possesse the matter and contents of
errours Lord cleanse me from my secret sinnes Where is considered 1 A disease about which 2 1 A concession we have many errours 2 A confession we cannot know them yet we may know more then we do by meanes propounded in the Sermon 2 A remedy flying to God by prayer About which 2 1 The Object secret sinnes which are 1 Demonstrated by the severall eyes 1 Of God 2 Of the world 3 Of a mans own conscience 2 Discovered by five meanes applied in the Sermon 2 The act or work against them prayer confessing their pollution as well as of other sinnes Matth. 13.45 46. The Kingdome of Heaven is like unto a Merchant-man seeking goodly pearles who when he had found a pearle of great price he went and sold all that he had and bought it Whence is discovered 1 The worth of the Gospell which is valued 1 By the place where it is In the Kingdome of Heaven 2 By the person that trades for it A Merchant-man 3 By the commodities of it Pearles a pearle of great price 4 By his invincible diligence about it he seeks till he finde it 2 What a good Christian will bid for it He sels all that he hath which is demonstrated 1 Negatively what he doth not sell 2 Positively what he doth sell for the enjoyment of Christ this pearle Psal 31.5 Into thy hands I commit my spirit thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth Where is discoursed 1 Davids confession of God 1 For soveraignty to be his Lord 2 For the signe of it Thou hast redeemed me 3 For his veracity God of truth 2 David's profession for himselfe where he presents 1 The nature of his soul a spirit 2 The Castle of his soul into thy hands 3 The Care for his soul I commit it unto thee The summe of all is 1 Secret sinnes discovered 2 Christ exalted among men 3 The Soul secured To his Worthy and Noble Friends 1 Mrs ELIZABETH NORTON wife to Colonel NORTON Esquire 2 Mrs KATHERINE MAY wife to JAMES MAY Esquire 3 Mrs HONORIA ELIOT wife to JOHN ELIOT Esquire 4 Mrs MARY NORTON All daughters to the Noble Lady Honoria Norton of Southwick in Hantshire my much honoured Patronesse Robert Abbot doth dedicate these three ensuing Sermons as a testimony of my dearest respects to that Noble Family and doth humbly pray for their souls and bodies happinesses to Eternall Glory MY Noble Friends God hath joyned you together by bloud and marriage and I durst not separate one from the other It is all your goods I ayme at and therefore I resolved not to make one beholding to another for a gift but all to bee thankefull to that Noble Mother who set me on work On my part I can do nothing that may deserve a publike eye but if others think otherwise I cannot help it If they tell me that I have a talent I have known that a long time If they tell me it may profit by way of preaching I must put that to the successe which Gods blessing will give it If they tell me it may profit by writing here onely I stick I am altogether ignorant what I can do in this kinde I have nothing to direct me but others opinions and desires and if they be no sure Cards and Compasses to sail by into this censuring world I may suffer shipwrack Howsoever it fall out I must now take my Lot and if with Jonas I be cast into the Sea it is because I have obeyed and not because I have rebelled It is possible for a man to know when he is called to do any work though it be a work of hazard He is called surely when he hath a voice from heaven to designe him as Paul had and when he hath a particular instinct of spirit as many worthies in the first ages and when he hath the prophesies go of him as Timothy had and when he hath the approbation and imposition of hands of the Eldership as ordinary servants of Christ for the benefit of the Church Pastours and Teachers have or lastly when he hath the engagement of the hearts of Gods people attending upon his dispensing of the mysteries of grace and pressing the publike use of what he doth more privately As I have had long ago and ever since some comfortable approbation at and since the imposition of hands so have I had some closing of the hearts of the godly for the bringing into the publike of what I have done in this service in the private This I have accounted an invitation to do something by the pen as well as in the Pulpit As I would not be so running out as to make all my diviner thoughts visible to the Sunne because there are many that can do it better so would I not be so bound up as to be unwilling to profit some in this way though others may think it not worth the looking on That which is as gold to some may be as brasse to others and that which is as silver to some is as lead to others and yet variety of spirits may be helped according to various touches and impressions of fancies judgements conceptions and opinions from the spirit of Christ I therefore being emboldened to do something in this kinde was not long to study to whose hands to present it first and thence to have it derived to all English hands and hearts that we are willing to receive it To you therefore my noble friends is it come onely craving your acceptance according to the worth of the matter not of the person that exhibits it unto you I am a poor old man clogged with many infirmities who have been tossed and bandied up and down in the world who yet want nothing but a fuller measure of Jesus Christ to dwell in my soul by faith I have learned you the fountains of secret sinnes and the means how to discover them in your selves that it may bow you before the God of heaven to make you fit to hold Jesus Christ It must be an hollow vessel which must hold water and an hollowed heart that must lye under the fountain of David for sin and for uncleannesse to carry away the water of life to the soul I have taught you the worth of the Glorious Gospel that you may be willing to hunt after Christ and when you have found him to part with all that is yours for his embracements And because your precious souls are in much danger in these distracted dayes both by prosperity and adversity I have learned you from the best assurance office in the world to secure your souls that while you enjoy them you may have faith while you have faith you may have Christ and while you have Christ you may have the love of God for your eternall good I must confesse that if ever Christian souls were in danger they are in danger now We are faln into the last and perillous dayes wherein while the Drum and Canon are the best musick and
come into the Garison unespied If the Shepheard sleep the whole flock may be overgrown with flye-blowes so may thy soul with errours if conscience be drowsie and have the spirit of slumber Then cry as to Dumah Watch-man what was in the night It cannot be told because conscience slept Thus it comes to passe that we know not our errours It may be demonstrated and we may be assured that we know not our errours three ways First by our security How we may be assured that we know not our errours Jud. 18.10 If a man live carelesly as the children of Laish it is a signe he knows not of his enemies If a man come without care bemired into company it is a signe that he knowes not his foulnesse so nor we know our errours when we live as if we cared not to get to heaven or avoid hell or to purge away any impurity which is presented with us into the sight of God and man Secondly By our pride If a man do highly prize his own reall or seeming excellencies it is a certain signe that he knowes not his own wants If a man be proud of his knowledge he knowes not that what he knowes is not the thousand part of what he is ignorant of If a man be proud of his graces and begin to point at and contemne others who do not so shine certainly he knowes not that his sinnes out-weigh his graces if they were brought to the ballance of the Sanctuary Thirdly by our hard hearts The heart of Josiah melted when the Law shewed his errours and the heart of Paul was wounded and he died when the Law came and made his errours live before him Triplex circa praecordia ferrum But we have armour of proof about our hearts They do not melt dye nor are wounded with the sight of our errours therefore we know them not Use 1 Therefore I beseech you make good use of this point for information humiliation and exhortation First let it teach us not to dream of a fulfilling of the Law in this life of our selves If a man cannot know his errours surely he shall never finde his full obedience What is unknown of his errours will have such an influence upon his conscience that he will still suspect his obedience to be but a polluted clout Papists speak of a double fulfilling of the Law the first is the travellers fulfilling it 1 Viatorum 2 Comprehensorum which is while men are militant in this life this they say is to love God above all and our neighbours as our selves The second is the possessors fulfilling of it which is when men are in Glory this they say is to love God with all our heart minde will and strength But indeed we have but one rule of righteousnesse which should bee fulfilled with all our powers and when God saith Gal. 3. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them it is not spoken of glorified persons We speak of a three-fold fulfilling of the Law Inchoata Imputatae Personalis Inchoate and begun by equall and sincere obedience according to grace given Imputed by the satisfaction of our surety made ours for the Law is then fulfilled when the breach of it is satisfied And personall and perfect which Paul teacheth to be impossible because of the flesh And Rom 8.3 in truth it must needs be so for personall fulfilling cannot stand with corruption in nature and sinne in life Besides our love cannot be greater then our knowledge 2 Cor. 13. which is imperfect yea and ignorance of errours cannot stand with fulfulfilling Therefore be not you in your eyes better then you deserve think not of fulfilling the Law when you know not how many breaches you make against it Use 2 Secondly be humbled under the consideration of this point A man that knows enough to condemn him before a Judge yet he knowes not all walks weakly before a Judge he hath not the confidence of an innocent So when you know enough to cast you to the nether-most hell yet not all it ought to make you as Hezekiah to walk in the bitternesse of your soul all your life yet with due remembrance of the Lord Jesus to lift up your heads with confidence Use 3 Thirdly be exhorted to stirre up your willing mindes to look into your selves to finde those errours out Ob. I know you will say that if there be no understanding there is no hope We cannot hope after that which is impossible Sol. It is true De impossibilibus non est spes if it were impossible for you to know more errours in your selves then you know yet Hee that knowes not now may know by search and the rest will be wrapped up in a generall repentance and will finde a pardon of course There are three ways by which more may be known then now How we may know our errours the knowledge of God the knowledge of our selves and humility As to the knowledge of God you see when Job had got some sight of God more then before and had not onely heard by the hearing of the ear Job 42.5 6 but his eye had seen him he saw so many errours in himself that he abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes Esa 6.1 And the Prophet Esay when he saw God upon the throne saw such errours in himself that he cried out wo is me I am undone Esa 6.5 because I am a man of unclean lips and dwell among such a people for my eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts Such a sight will shew us such purity as we shall see nothing but errours in our selves Set this light before your souls and then you will cry out with Paul I was a blasphemer 1 Tim. 1.13 15. a persecuter injurious yea the chief of sinners You will see all your errours cleerly enough Gehenna sum domine You will say with that blessed Martyr I am hell Lord I am hell Oh take away my hell Hei mihi quid sum vas sterquilinii concha putredinis plenus foetore Facti sumus fugitivi a cordibus nostris Hei mihi quam contrarius sum egomet mihi ego in spiritu ego in carne and give me thy heaven and with Augustine Alas wretched man what am I A very close Stoole a shovell full of dung full of stink As to the knowledge of our selves the more we see our selves in our right lineaments and proportions the more we shall say when we are asked what we see more abominations yet The truth is that we are runagates from our own hearts Whatsoever we pretend we know not our selves as we ought to do But stand at this Bar and we shall be driven to word it as he of old Alas that I am how contrary am I to my self I in the flesh and I in the spirit Now errours
the throne a Sea of glasse Apoc. 4. such is the world to the Christian troublesome as the sea and transitory as glasse His ship that is the Church which like Noahs Ark floats upon the floud and makes him cry out as the Disciples in that storm save Master we perish His Merchandise that is true and heavenly wisdome Pro. 3.14 whose Merchandise is better then silver and whose gain is better then gold His losses that is his houses and lands Mar. 10. Matth. 16. his father mother wife children life yea and his soul too if he do not watch and pray and then what will it profit him to win the whole world if hee lose his owne soul Secondly a Merchant lends upon adventure He commits what he hath to the mercy of the sea to the unsafety of a ship which staggers up and down like a drunken man and is subject to many a storm and leak and to be indangered by Pyrats So doth a Christian If he look for comfort he casts his burthen upon the Lord and he knowes not when he shall have it If he look for faith peace joy in the Holy Ghost he casts himself upon the meanes and confidently adventures upon the truth of God If he looks for better times he casts the Anchor of hope because he hath them not and looks for new heavens 2 Pet. 3. and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse If he do but a work of mercy Eccles 11. he casts his bread upon the waters hoping after many dayes he shall finde it but he knowes not when the return will come If he finde his expectation to be fruitlesse he sayes as Peter to Christ we have laboured all night and have taken nothing yet at thy command I le cast down the Net and at last findes the successe answerable Thirdly a Merchant fetcheth in the commodities of every Country to enrich himself and his country the gold of Ophir the gummes and spices of Arabia and whatsoever he findes gain and glory in So doth the Christian If any thing be heard of truly good and honest Phil. 4. and of good report he thinks upon these things to do them He knowes how to distinguish betwixt base and valuable commodities If he meet with the superstition of Spain the pride of France the lust of Italy the drunkennesse of Germany he hates them even to the garment spotted of the flesh but whatsoever he meets withall that may be an honour to God an ornament to the Gospel an edification to his neighbour a comfort to his own soul that he brings home to inrich himself and others with it Fourthly a Merchant fetcheth all he hath from far As it is said of the good housewife she is like a Merchants ship Prov. 31. she fetcheth her food from a farre She fetcheth it from the earth to the house from the house to the wheel from the wheel to lomb from the lomb to her houshold her own and her husbands back Thus doth she her husband good and not evill all the dayes of her life So doth the Christian He looks to the earth to the Sea under the earth to the ayr yea and to the Church to espie what may be serviceable to him and his but yet he goes further He dares not make use of any thing he hath or can have before he knocks at the gate of heaven He sees an open trade driven betwixt Christ and his Church and he will not have gold nor rayment Apoc. 3. nor eye-salve no nor a crust of bread before he have beg'd the comfortable use of them from the great owner of heaven Vse Therefore I beseech you Christians be perswaded that it is not so easie to be a true Christian as most men think it to be You know the conceits of too many What is it but to beleeve in Christ and what is this belief but to trust in Christ upon the rotten grounds of their own hearts Oh but a Merchants life is full of care full of fear full of depending prayers full of hazards and losses and so certainly is a Christians also They are deceived that think to stretch themselves upon beds of Ivory Am. 6.4 to drink wine in bowles to eat the calves of the stall to invent instruments of Musick like and then to go to heaven in a Sedan Coach or Chariot as Elias The Kingdom of heaven must suffer violence and the violent take it by force Thorough Sea Land and a thousand difficulties doth a Merchant passe and so must you Ob. But doth not Christ say my yoak is easie why then are we frighted with danger and difficulty Sol. It is true that in many respects Math. 11. the yoak of Christ is easie and his burthen light In comparison of the yoak of Moses exacting perfect righteousnesse to justification or else cursing This was insupportable Act. 15. neither we nor our fathers were able to bear it In comparison of the yoak of worldly Princes These have a double yoak in penall statutes and voluntary decrees and resolves We would account our selves most miserable if we should be galled with the easiest of them In comparison of Adams yoak exacting the perfecting of the law of nature Posse perseverare non actum perseverandi for which he had a power of perseverance though not the act of it Alas we cannot do it we have not this power we cannot bear In comparison of the excellent helps we have to bear it Christ puts into one hand that we may pay him with the other Thus he saith they shall not depart from me Jer. 32.40 Therefore in these respects the yoak of Christ is easie But in respect of the duties of the Gospel and our weak natures to perform them it is very hard Put your souls to repent and beleeve to deny your selves to take up Christ and beleeve not onely to beleeve but to suffer for Christ to strive unto bloud to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and live holily righteously and soberly in this present world to beat down the body and bring it in subjection to mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the spirit not to care for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of it and to walk in simplicity and godly purenesse it is hard very hard therefore ye have cause to think of the life of the Merchant Yet this addes to the worth of the Gospel that this Christian Merchant trades in this Kingdome of heaven 3 What doth he trade for The commodity traded for is the Pearl Christ Pearles especially for that pearl of great price that godly pearl This represents Christ unto to you who is the Diamond heart and soul of the Gospel And in truth Christ is this pearl in five respects First in respect of rarenesse Pearls are not to be found in every ground nor Christ in every soul How many thousands are there where Christ dwels not It is as impossible not to see a