those years any servant of the Hebrews might go from his master and be set free if he would accept of it which did teach and typifie that any person whosoever that is by nature a servant unto Sin and Satan might go out be set free by Christ under the Gospel if he would accept of it for the years of freedom and of Jubilee typified the year of grace by Christ as you may see in Luk. 4. 19 where Christ is said to preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ainsworth the acceptable year of the Lord that is the Jubilee for he dying Lev. 25. 10. in the last Jubilee that ever the land had set all free for ever that would receive him So the brazen serpent was a figure Numb 21. 8 9. of Christ Now the law of the brazen serpent was this That if a Serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived Every one saith God that is bitten when he looks upon it shall live What 's the meaning of this That whosoever believes in Christ mark ye whosoever any Joh 3. 14 15. one every one that will look upon him and believe in him should not perish but have eternal life as himself expounds it The brazen serpent was free for any Israelite that was stung any one might go and look on 't and be healed so Christ is free for any sinner that would be healed as he explains it God so loved the world that is the Gentiles as well as Jews that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting Vers 16. John 12. 32. Mark 16. 15. Vers 16. life And in another place And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men to me And therefore Christ appoints his Disciples to preach the Gospel to every creature that is to every man and woman ye meet with to any Gentile as well as to any Jew and then adds He that believes shall be saved Christ then and salvation by Christ is free for any person if he will believe Indeed where the Gospel is not preached the people are not commanded to believe and so obedience cannot be exacted from them nor they punish't for the want of it yet the commission of mercy and pardon given out is no way limited in regard of persons but tenders mercy and pardon without restriction of persons upon believing and therefore where-ever it comes it offers Christ and Salvation free for every person of them whatsoever to be obtained by believing In a word this was typified by the Proclamation of Cyrus ye know their coming out of Babylon was a figure of our coming 2 Chr. 36. 23. out of our spiritual captivity Now the Proclamation of Cyrus ran thus Who is there among you of all his people The Rev. 22. 17. Lord his God be with you and let him go up Like that in the Revelations Whosoever will let him drink of the water of life freely Any Jew might have liberty and freedom from captivity upon the terms of accepting it for it was granted to all whosoever to depart that would depart Now though it is true all did not take it and so were not delivered yet freedom was free for every one that would accept it And therefore sinners I do here invite ye all to come to Christ not only for pardon but for grace and for conversion and repentance It is true he will never give you pardon without conversion but he will give you conversion for pardon Do not keep off from Christ till ye are converted but go to Christ for conversion he will receive you all if you will all go to him I am a most loathsom creature a most loathsom wretch and Object will God look on me will he love me if I go to him May such a vile loathsom sinner as I go to so a Holy God will God put me into his bosom And therefore when a poor soul is enlightned to see his sin he is at a stand he dares not go and converse with God for a pardon Arm thy self against this Temptation in these following things I shall give you 1. Therefore if thou art loathsom thou hast the more need Answ to go to God that thou mayst be cleansed because thou art loathsom thou hast the more need to fly to him Thy foulness and loathsomness should not stave thee off from Christ but drive thee unto Christ because men have filthy diseases therefore they go unto the Bath because Naaman had a leprosie therefore he went and washed in Jordan so because thou hast dirt on thy soul go to the blood of Christ to wash thee 2. Though God be holy yet he will receive loathsom sinners when they come to him that they may be purged As when Isaiah cryed out Wo unto me I am undone because I am a man Isa 6. 5. of unclean lips Thou thinkest thy self undone because thou art unclean if thou goest to God and Isaiah thought himself undone because he was unclean in that God came to him But what then what was the issue Then flew one of the Seraphims Vers 6 7. to me having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the Altar and he laid it upon my mouth and said Lo this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged Isaiah crys out I am undone because I have seen the Lord and am unclean But the Angel saith Be of good cheer thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged Soul thou sayst thou art unclean but wouldst thou be purged I dare not go to God because I am unclean but wouldst thou be purged Then thou shalt have a live cole from his altar a holy cole dropt down from heaven He will baptize thee with the holy ghost and with fire 3. If loathsomness of sin should keep us off from going to God then none should ever be saved because loathsomness and uncleanness is the state of every man But we see God hath entertained loathsom sinners say they why not me 4. Thou art loathsom and filthy by sin well thou canst never cleanse thy self thou art not able to put beauty on thine own soul thou canst not thy self wash one drop of dirt off thy nature and therefore surely thou mayst and must go to Christ that he may cleanse thee else it will never be done As the Apostle tells us The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from 1 John 1. 7. all sin Object God saith in one place He desires not the death of a sinner and yet he hath appointed men to damnation How can God be just in this God hath appointed all things from eternity If he hath appointed me to salvation I shall be saved and if God hath appointed me to damnation I shall be damned whatever I do Answ Thou art not to look to Gods Appointments but to Gods Commandments God doth not
first shew people that he hath elected them and then and thereby perswade and bring them to believe But election is concealed as a secret thing and by Gods offering Christ freely to every one to be had by believing his free offer doth encourage them to believe and God giving them the gift of Faith they believe and come to know that they are elected unto life eternal There was never in the Divine will any such decree of damning any man though he should believe and live holy yea God hath established and published unto all men a quite contrary decree that whosoever believeth in his Son shall not perish but have John 3. 16. everlasting life You must lay hold on Christ and hang there and continue hanging there Object But I shall never hold out It is to no purpose at all for me to lay hold on Christ for I shall not hold my hold I shall be beaten off again Answ 1. It is true you should be beaten off again you could not hold your hold did you lay hold either by your own strength or upon your strength But when you lay hold on Christ you are kept not by your own power but by the power of God through faith unto salvation When you lay hold 1 Pet. 1. 5. on Christ Christ layeth hold on you and keeps you safe by his power for heaven before a man casts himself upon Christ or is in Christ he is his own keeper and therefore hath but a poor keeper 2. Another soul-staying argument to assure thee of thy keeping thy perseverance is this When once a soul is taken into Christ it hath not only all sins past pardoned but also pardon laid up for all sins to come There is forgiveness with thee Psal 130. 4. that is there 's a perpetual stock of pardon going in God for all our daily sinning and therefore doth Christ bid us still pray Forgive us our trespasses because there lye pardons with God ready before-hand for all sins that we do act as well as for what we have acted And for all that is to come as well as for that which is past And therefore Paul tells you There is no Rom. 8. 1. condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that is after they are in Christ there is no instant of time wherein it can be said that they are under the sentence of Condemnation Now were it not that there is pardon laid in before-hand for all sin that is to come it might upon every acting of a new sin be said that now they are under condemnation for if the least sin be not pardoned there is condemnation but this cannot be 3. Perseverance is a gift that is purchased by Christ Christ hath as truly and as really laid down his blood to purchase thy perseverance as thy pardon and therefore canst thou be sure of any thing by vertue of Christs purchase thou mayst he as sure of perseverance God knew at first that thou couldst no more keep thine hold on Christ than thou couldst at first lay thine hold on Christ And therefore To you that mind not Christ at all but are still bent upon your lusts and sins and will not let him rule over you oh receive Christ be exhorted to come in and believe in him Else 1. You shall have as much fear of Christ as of God and as much danger from Christ as from God for Christ will be angry with you as well as God Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye Psal 2. 12. perish from the way 2. Such shall not only perish but perish worse than others they are dead already but shall dye worse they are faln in Adam but shall fall further And Simeon blessed them and Luk. 2. 34. said unto Mary his mother behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be Matth. 10. 12 14 15. spoken against One Text more And when ye come into an house salute it And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when ye depart out of that house or city shake off the dust of your feet Verily I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city And thus I have shewed you how Satan hinders thee in conversion by tempting thee that thou canst not believe thou art dead in sin arm thy self against this temptation thus I know I cannot belleve of my self And this is the first thing thou must do namely to believe that thou canst not believe of thy self and thus thou mayst overshoot Satan in his own Bow and when thou seest thy self so lost that thou canst not believe of thy self thou art a step in thy way to heaven And know this that it is the condition of all till they have new hearts and new spirits And now observe you that will not believe till you are sanctified and find something in your selves 1. You keep your selves off from believing for you cannot believe that Christ is yours till you believe in Christ 2. 'T is pride in you that you will not have all ground of hope and mercy to be in God and none in your self For observe it you will ground your salvation only on Christ but you must see somewhat in your selves before you will believe 3. You Eclipse the shining forth of Gods free grace you darken its Beams for Gods grace is free grace now whilst ye will not believe but first will be able to do somewhat you make not Christ nor Justification a free gift nor can it be free grace in God and so whilst you do not see Gods free grace you do not exalt him nor magnifie him so much as you should 4. It is a darkning of Gods Truth for you dare not venture yours souls on Gods bare word but you must see somewhat done in you before you will credit him for though he saith that whosoever comes to Christ and believes in him shall be saved and sanctified yet you will not believe till ye find your selves sanctified and so dare not trust his word and therefore it is that the Scripture makes an unbeliever to make God a 1 John 5. 10. lyar 5. You totter your assurance and make it reeling and unstable Timo. Rogers in his right way to believe p. 93 96. for if you ground your assurance upon your graces then as they have risings and abatings so will your assurance rise and fall ebb and flow Oh then be exhorted to believe for you that believe but weakly oh believe more and strengthen your Faith for you that believe but weakly you wrong God and Christ and your selves very much as if Christ the second Adam were not as good to help you as the first Adam was to hurt you Vse last I shall conclude with this point look for a day of temptation and prepare for a day of
discovers are no other for substance but those very things which are in Scripture only he gives a clearer light to discern them by To Instance That God is Every man saith he knows this and believes it as well as the godly doth But I must tell him That the godly man seeth a great deal further into it he seeth that God is as truly as he seeth that the Sun is when it shines upon him And therefore God is in all his thoughts The wicked man will tell you he knows that God is present in all places and yet he will be drunk in God Presence swear and lye in Gods Presence cheat and deal unjustly in Gods Presence How can this man say he believes that God is present where he is But now the godly Man seeth that God is present in all places as clearly as if God appeared visibly to him Secondly They know feelingly they feel what they know what they know in the head they feel in the heart And they count themselves to know no more than they feel as Melancthon makes mention of a godly Woman who having strong conflicts upon her Death-bed and was afterwards much comforted brake out into these words Now and not till now I understand the meaning of those words Thy sins are forgiven thee The Knowledg of Divine Mysteries is rather a spiritual sensation than speculation It lyeth more in sense and feeling than in understanding of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul it self hath its sense as well as the body And therefore when David would teach us how to know what the Divine goodness is he calls not for speculation but sensation Taste and see how good the Lord is Know God as thou wouldest have God know thee know Christ as thou wouldest have Christ know thee Thou wouldest have God know thee and take care of thee so must thou know him and take care of his Glory Thou wouldest have God know thee and succour thee in dangers as the Disciples when the Waves covered the ship said to Christ Master carest thou not that we perish So must thou Mark 4. 38. know God and his Cause so as to prop it up in difficult times lest it perish Thou wouldest have Christ know thee so as to dye for thee Lord if thou dye not for me I must be damned so must thou know Christ so as to dye for him and his Truth I am ready Acts 21. 13. not only to be bound but to dye at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Thou wouldest have Christ know thee so as to love thee and put thee in his bosom Who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. So must thou know Christ so as to love him and put him into thy bosom Lord thou knowest that I love thee John 21. 16. Charity or love is the most eminent of all the Graces inasmuch as Faith shall fail when there shall be nothing to believe nor to have confidence in and Hope shall fail when Christ returning and the resurrection of the just being made there shall be nothing more to hope for Only Love shall never fail for there shall be always what to love and what to taste For in eternal life we shall love God and Christ and we shall find a perpetual relish and savour in the contemplation of God and of Jesus Christ Know the things that are prepared and given thee of God Therefore is the spirit given us that me may know the things 1 Cor. 2. 12. that God hath given us What is it to know Heaven unless thou knowest that Heaven is given thee of God What is it to know Christ unless thou knowest that Christ is given thee of God What is it to know God himself unless thou knowest him to be thy God What is it to know the Scriptures unless Valdesso Consid 70. thou believest and holdest for certain all that is contained in the Scriptures and hast confidence in the Divine promises as if to thee properly and principally they had bin made Forgiveness of sin is a blotting out of iniquity as a cloud Isa 44. 22. A Cloud is by the Power of the Heavens nullified neither form nor matter to be found not any circumstances like it to note that ever such a thing was Forgiveness notes Remission which is the Term in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remission Remittere quasi Remittere to send a thing back again the unravelling and undoing of a thing misdone the nullifying of an unlawful Action As sin makes void the Law and nullifies it so doth forgiveness nullifie and make void sin When we are remitted we are retromissi sent back again to our first Condition as when we were in Paradise no more mentioned and no more thought of than of Adam before his fall Know thy self what need thou hast of them a Damned man and therefore need of eternal life a guilty man and therefore need of Justification a lost man and therefore need of a Saviour A man under Satans power and therefore need of Redemption Thirdly They know powerfully Their Knowledg comes like an Armed man upon them and carrieth them Captive into the Tents of those things they know 2 Cor. 10. 5. And therefore Christ is said To ascend up on high and to lead Psal 68. 18. captivity captive It binds the soul up in chains Lord I am thy Prisoner I yield to thee and will be no more a Rebel It layeth a soul flat at the feet of Christ as it did Paul he fell to the Earth Lord what wilt thou have me to do I 'le swear no more only pardon me Lord and I 'le be drunk no more I 'le persecute the Saints no more pardon me only and I 'le deal unjestly no more I 'le serve thee upon thine own terms and do what ever thou bidst me Fourthly They know delightfully Their Knowledg stamps upon their hearts Impressions of delight in the things they know because true Knowledg presents the Mysteries of Heaven lovely to them and layeth a Net to catch their souls in love with them Spiritual Science is steeped in affection taking delight in the things known not barely apprehending but relishing and savouring what it apprehends with abundance of love and complacency Fifthly They know admiringly Their Knowledg catcheth them up into the third Heaven of admiration They that know aright the Mystery of Redemption know and admire the Wisdom of God in contriving such a curious piece of reconciling Justice and Mercy to save a poor sinner As Paul calls it The manifold wisdom of God For consider Gospel-Mysteries Eph. 3. 10. are the Mysteries of a Kingdom and fit for admiration For 1. Kingdoms have Majesty Solomon had Lyons about his Throne to set forth the Majesty of it to make Transaction between that and all other people with Awe So Christ manageth his way in this World with Majesty Heaven and Earth tremble at his Presence he utters
of his grace but also his spirit and life in the same manner as we say the members move not themselves nor live but by the life of their head So that to live christianly it is not enough to say that we must be in grace but we must live in the spirit and life of Jesus Forasmuch as we are one with Christ we must live his life and be acted and guided by his Spirit That life of Union which makes us one with him causes us to live in his spirit and life Not I but Christ Jesus Gal. 2. 20. lives in me And therefore the life of a Christian is the life of God himself who lives in us by his Son Whence it follows that as the Father lives in the Son and the Son in the Father so we live in Jesus and Jesus in us and because Jesus lives in us the Father also lives in us as you may find in Job 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 3. This expression in Christ Jesus speaks causality because all that live godly are in Christ Jesus as the effect in its cause they have all their Being of grace from Jesus Christ I say they are in Christ as the effect in its cause They are in Christ Jesus as 1. In the efficient cause 2. In the exemplary cause 3. In the conserving and supporting cause of all their graces 1. They must be in Christ as in the efficient cause of all their graces For God in giving us Christ in our nature makes him thereby the principle of a new life in us and wills that as himself is the principle of the life of his Son in eternal generation so his Son should be the principle of our life in the new Regeneration of our souls with the washing of Eph. 5. 26. John 5. 21. water by the word As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will whether dead in their graves or dead in their sins And again As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to Vers 26. have life in himself i. e. to give life to others 2. The godly are in Christ as their exemplary cause They form up themselves to him Men cannot be godly unless they make Christ their Samplar so that to live godly in Christ Jesus is to act and live like unto Jesus Christ to make him the Idaea of our graces and the partern of our life All that wear the name of godly upon them are obliged to imitate Jesus Christ The greatest honour we can give him is to conform our selves to his life and intentions to imitate Jesus Christ maintains our adherence to him I beseech you observe it we adhere no longer to Christ than we are like him and we are not in him if we do not imitate him Our life then must be a lively Image of the life of Jesus Christ The first use a Christian is to make is to look upon the Son of God as the Prototype and Exemplar of his life and actions to express and represent him as it were to the life As the Son of God is the Image and Resemblance of his Father so must the Christian be of the Son We must be by grace what Jesus is by nature the Son of God is the true life and true model of our life Our interior and exterior life then must imitate and regard the exercises of the soul of Jesus Christ and the actions of his sacred life What Paul saith in another case As we have born the 1 Cor. 15. 49. image of the earthly Adam so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly i. e. of Christs glory when we come to glory so as we have born the Image of Adam imitating him by sin and following him by our own inclinations we must also bear the Image of Jesus Christ copying out his life and actions God gave us a Law as a Rule of life but he gives us a living Law a living Rule and form of life in Christ and shews us in him the manner of conversation that we must follow to live christianly that is to live a new life My Beloved we should never have understood the dimensions of life as it lyeth in the law had we not seen it acted in Christ Jesus By looking on and taking some measure of the excellent life of Jesus Christ we come to know what the life of holiness is that is commanded in the law And observe it The Lord Christ came not only to set himself before us to imitate him but to give us a grace and power to imitate him and put on his likeness As Paul saith I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Consider it seriously Many because they lean upon Christ for pardon and upon his righteousness alone for salvation believe lustily that they are in Christ Jesus But ye are not in Christ till ye live his life your vital imitation of Christ speaks your Vnion to Christ if you are not like him you do not live in him To imitate Christ 1. We must shun all manner of sin for he knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 22. And again 't is said of him Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth And 't is said there That he left us an Vers 21. example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth So then here lies our imitation of Christ that as he had no sin so we must strive to have no sin in us And my Beloved to what end are we religious and pray and put on a devout form upon our selves if we favour our sins in us To pray against sin and yet indulge sin us is to play the greatest hypocrites to pray like Christ and not live like Christ is the rankest dissimulation And that you may put your selves into a perfect resemblance of Jesus Christ you must mortifie nature in you for Christ was pure in his nature he was not only free from acts of sin but had an unstained nature and therefore to be like Christ you must get all stains of sin out of your nature you most mortifie the Spirit and Inclinations of Adam in you you must root out of the foundation of your soul I say you must put out of the very foundation of your Being all hidden principles all oppositions inclinations and customs contrary to holiness And therefore Mortification which is in a manner lost among Christians must be both inward and outward nay chiefly of the inward man The keen edg of Mortification must fall directly upon the root the nature of man the heart and spirit of Adam in us And therefore though to abstain from gross sins makes a fair and goodly shew in the flesh yet 't is insignificant and
SERMONS Concerning GRACE AND Temptations BY THAT Reverend and Eminent Preacher Mr. THOMAS FROYSEL Late Minister of the Gospel at CLVNNE in the County of SALOP JOHN 5. 35. He was a burning and a shining light LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel and at the Bible on London-Bridg 1678. Licensed and Entred according to Order TO THE READER Good Reader IT will suffice that I suggest unto thee these Two things on this occasion I. That the Author of these ensuing Sermons was a Great man for Worth in his Generation Great for true Holiness both in Heart and Life Though a person of a pleasant conversation yet made great conscience of touching the least sin He had a truly tender Conscience and withall led a most blameless life 2. He was great in Parts both natural and acquired a River of Eloquence did always flow from him and that without any affectation He had concocted the substance of School-Divinity and made it useful for his Ministry He was a good Textuary and well acquainted with the Learned Languages He had the command of Philosophy and other Juvenile Learning even in his Old Age and made a sober and sweet use of them in his Ministration 3. He was great in his Accomplishments Of a sweet and sociable temper ever cheerful unless clouded with the fears of Gods Displeasure Of a gentile and obliging humour fit to converse with the Greatest and yet ready to resolve the Cases and comfort the hearts of the Meanest No man at once more Heavenly and yet Humble It was as rare a thing to hear him speak ill of any man as it was to hear any man speak all of him 4. He was great in his Labours both in his Study in his Family and in the Pulpit He dwelt in his Study it was his Palace his book and he seldom parted except at meals throughout the whole day unless it were to lay out in his Masters service what he had been laying in and so intent in it that it was long before he did hear or heed such as were sent to call him down And the matter of his studies would so affect his heart that he was frequently over-heard by his domesticks to perfume his Garden with holy Ejaculations And then in his Family he was diligent and serious having the Scriptures read Psalms sung and Prayers poured out every day and preaching to his houshold two or three times in the wee l except in Harvest for a long time He frequented the publick Ordinances when he was able exacted a constant account of the proficience of his Children and Servants under the Means of Grace and in particular he seldom omitted a solemn Exhortation to them on Saturday Evening the better to compose and prepare them for the Duties of the Lords-day But he was Greatest in the Pulpit there his Grace and Gifts did shine like a Star of the first Magnitude He did really seem to his Hearers to come there like an Angel dropt from Heaven His Eye his Countenance his Gesture proper to a Divine Orator His Sermons composed of Learning and Piety and delivered with such natural fluency and other gracious Accomplishments that his Elocution and Pronunciation did equally charm his Hearers which he would frequently intermix with lively Apostrophes sometimes God sometimes to them that were before him in a most effectual manner His Genius did most naturally incline him to deal with ungodly men by way of sweet reflexion and perswasion yet upon occasion he excelled in the penetrating and terrifying Hypocrites and obdurate sinners and his sword was the keener by being dipt in oyl 5. He was great in success many in London and more in the Country some alive and some dead that received their spiritual life growth and comfort from God by his Ministry 6. Lastly He was great in his Afflictions and Tryals He was reduced in his last years to a narrow livelihood Being no Plodder for Riches nor Complainer of Poverty he had scarce whereon to live much less wherewith to give to six Children which surviv'd him And to add to this Tryal falling from his Horse not long before his Death he brake his Leg which proved a long and sore affliction which sad season Satan espying fell upon him with his black Tentations with which he endured many bitter Conflicts and then he that had comforted many had need of comfort himself but Thanks be to God who gave him the Victory through Jesus Christ our Lord and released him from his Warfare on Earth in the Sixty-third year of his life The modesty of his surviving Relations hinders you from a more particular Narrative of his Life which was eminent and exemplary every way When I have said all I speak not in Complement I do but darken his lustre He was a Man every way above my Commendation II. That these Sermons were exactly his own being transcribed from his Notes with all possible care Being Preach't in the Country they were fitted for his Auditory though you will find they might have gratified more discerning palates You cannot expect them so exactly polisht or methodiz'd as those that came out of the * The Gale of Opportunity and The Beloved Disciple Authors own hand but they may prove as profitable to the honest and good heart who will have occasion to give thanks to that Worthy Person by whose direction these are publisht and to beg of God to thrust more such Labourers into his Harvest In a word though it be impossible to represent them to the eye with that peculiar advantage wherewith he did it to the ear yet the serious Reader will find herein that which will clear his Vnderstanding search his Conscience inflame his Zeal and settle his Comfort which is the unfeined scope and desire of Thy Servant for Jesus sake Richard Steele THE MYSTERY OF SAVING-GRACE Mat. XIII 11 12. He answered and said unto them Because it is given unto you to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance c. THIS Chapter is made up of Parables with which Christ at this time Apparel'd his Sermon to the people He spake many things unto them in Parables Ver. 3 at which his Disciples wondred and asked him Why speakest thou unto them in Parables Ver. 10 i. e. Sir the rude multitude do not understand thee they cannot see the soul of thy meaning through the body of thy Parables And therefore Why speakest thou unto them in Parables His Disciples wonder at it Where observe an Example of Ignorance in the Disciples they knew not the cause why Christ spake in Parables to the multitude Obs 1. Saints are ignorant of the Reason of Gods Actions till he make it known 2. We admire why God doth do many things till he discovers the Reason 3. Good hearers and Christians are not ashamed
of natural things leaves thee but a natural man a well-polished Phil. 3. 8 9. natural man but the Knowledg of Christ makes thee a Saint the Knowledg of Jesus saves thee from thy sins the most exquisite Knowledg of all natural things leaves thee in thy sins but the Knowledg of Jesus Christ saves thee from thy sins And therefore saith Paul I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified Because Paul knew that no Knowledg would save himself and no Knowledg 1 Cor. 2. 2. he made others know would save them but the Knowledg of Jesus Christ and him crucified If all the men in the World were wounded and lay at the point of Death and there were but one herb in all the World that would heal them How would they all send abroad to know that one Herb and to know the virtue of it and how to use it and apply it How happy would they count themselves in the Knowledg of it My Beloved All the Men and Women in the World are wounded they are wounded to death and lye gasping for life and there is but one Herb in all the World that can heal and save them and that is Jesus Christ whose Divine nature did grow out of the bosom of God the Father from all Eternity and whose humane Nature did grow out of the sanctified Womb of the Virgin Oh! how precious should be the Knowledg of Jesus Christ then unto you Surely it is the greatest priviledg to know him 3. Grace begins in Knowledg in the Knowledg of the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven as the stream begins in the spring for Knowledg is the spring of Grace the Knowledg of God is the spring of our Love to God the Knowledg of the Power and Truth of God is the spring of our Trust in God They that know thy name will trust in thee Psal 9. 10. Knowledg that saves us is not a bare notion of God it knows his power and therefore fears him knows his justice and therefore serves him knows his mercy and therefore trusts him knows his goodness and therefore loves him Reas 4. Because it is a Knowledg above the reach of Nature to know the Mysteries of Heaven is beyond the sphear of Nature and Reason They are foolishness to the natural man 1 Cor. 2. 14. neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Natural men cannot know supernatural Mysteries Carnal reason cannot apprehend spiritual Objects Surely they are some rare and stately things that stand thus aloft above the reach of Reason For mans Reason is an Eagle and flieth high and therefore these Mysteries of Heaven must needs be some high and glorious things which mans reason soaring upon its loftiest wings cannot attain unto Reas 5. Because few do know them we count that a great Priviledg which is committed but to a few and that 's the signification of the word Privilegium Reas 6. Because they are Mysteries i. e. hidden and secret things Now to know not plain and common things but to know Mysteries we count it a great Priviledg How did the Philosophers study to know the Mysteries and secrets of Nature and in what Honour were they had because they knew them What a priviledg is it then to know the Mysteries of Heaven And because they are such deep and rare Mysteries the Angels themselves desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to peep into them Reas 7. Because they are Mysteries of God and is it not a 1 Pet. 1. 1◠superlative priviledg to know the Mystiries of God A man counts it an high priviledg to be of a Kings Privy-Council and to know his Royal secrets What a point of Honour is it then to know the Mind and Mysteries of the great God and have his Divine secrets communicated to them God can do no more unless he should make us God They that know the Kings secrets are next unto the King himself So doth God make them that know his secrets next unto himself First God makes all his secrets immediately known to Christ and Christ is next to God and Christ made known his secrets to the Apostles and they are next to Christ Reas 8. Because the Mysteries of Heaven are lovely things to see to they are bright beauties and exquisite rarities to look upon God is a lovely and beauteous thing therefore saith David Psal 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord. His beauty is such that if we could but see some little of it it would enamour and ravish our hearts 't would wrap us into such an Extasie and Admiration of him that all other even the most excellent things would appear to be but base to him For First God is the only satisfactory Object of mans Knowledg The Knowledg of all other things could you behold them all with one intuitive Act is but an hungry beggarly Knowledg a sick Knowledg till thou know him The soul of Man her Appetite is never filled nor satisfied till she know God When I read some Authors and view their Ignorance of God I cannot but sit down and say Oh! what a Priviledg is it to know God! I will give you an Instance Pliny A man of vast parts who writes the History of Nature Lib. 2. Cap. 7. Quisquis est Deus si modo est Alius c. Irridendum verò agere curam rerum humanarum illud quiequid est summum Ibidem Annè tam tristi atque multiplici Ministerio non pollui credamus Dubitemusvè Ibidem Verùm in his Deos agere curam rerum humanarum credi ex usu vitae est Ibidem Verùm in his Deos agere curam rerum humanarum credi ex usu vitae est Paenasquè Maleficiis aliquandò seras occupato Deo in tanta mole nunquam autem irritas esse Ibid. and you would think he had fathom'd the very bottom of Nature yet when he comes to speak of God saith he God whosoever he be if haply there be any other but the World Again saith he That the chiefest Power whatsoever it is meaning God hath care of mankind or of mens affairs is a thing to be derided or scorn'd at What dreadful darkness is this How uncomfortable to us that we have no God to mind our Conditions or manage our Events And his Reason is this as poor as his Assertion Can we believe that he should not be polluted with so sordid or base and so trouble some a service As if the Sun cannot shine upon a dunghil but it must be defiled And yet afterwards he saith Howbeit to believe that the Gods have care of mens Estates is useful and expedient for this life Whether he speaks this being forced by Conviction or out of Pollicy to keep men within Bounds rather than of Faith
I know not though I conceive the latter by his following words To believe that the Gods have care of mens Estates is useful for this life As also that the punishment of Malefactors is sometimes late because God is busily employed otherwise in so vast a frame as this World is but never misseth in the end Where you may see how poor an opinion he hath of God as if he were forced to put off the punishment of Sinners out of necessity because he could not have while could not do many things at once his affairs being too great for his head But he goeth on and saith That the chief comfort that man hath for his imperfection and weakness of nature is That even Imperfectae veroin homine naturae praecipua solatia nè Deum quidem posse omnia Ibidem Nam nec sibi potest mortem consciscere si velit Nec mortales aeternitate donare nec revocare defunctos nec facere ut qui vixit non vixerit qui Honores gessit non gesserit nullumque habere in praterita jus praeterquam Oblivionis Neque ut facetis quoque Argumentis Societas haec cum Deo copuletur ut bis dena Viginti non sint Ac multa similiter efficere non posse Per quae Declaratur haud dubiè Naturae Potentia Idque esse quod Deum vocamus Ibidem God himself cannot do all things And he doth Instance in some things very sadly That God cannot Mortales aeternitate donare aut revocare defunctos Crown mortal men with everlasting life nor recal or raise the dead which speaks his own miserable Condition And ye Saints of God if this were truth then ye also of all men are the most miserable But he doth instance also in other things which God cannot do and which we grant For we say That God cannot do those things which imply Contradiction And these things God cannot do not because he is not Omnipotent but Quia Praedicatum Repugnat subjecto because the Praedicate is Repugnant to the subject Thus God to use his own Instances cannot bring to pass that one who lived did not live or he that bare Honourable Offices was not in place of Rule and Dignity God cannot make things that are past not to be past And he goeth on to break a jest upon God in these things For saith he Vt facetis quoquè Argumentis societas haec cum Deo copuletur That by Facetious and merry Arguments we may prove our Fellowship therein with God he cannot cause that twice ten should not make twenty Whereby without doubt saith he is proved the power of Nature and that it is she and nothing else which we call God Thus doth this great Man for want of Divine Knowledg advance Nature into the Throne of God and degrade God so low as to be nothing else but Nature How was he benighted in dark and dreadful Ignorance Do you not by this time see That it is a most superlative Priviledg to know God And indeed it is so if we would believe but Scripture This is life-eternal saith Christ to John 17. 3. know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent God himself is the great Soul and Excellency of all the Mysteries of Heaven all the rest are but so many lines that lead us to him the Center he is the root of all the Mysteries of Heaven and the Vltimate end of them all were it not for God they would all be worth nothing 2. Jesus Christ is a lovely thing The brightness of his fathers Heb. 1. 3. glory and the express image of his person All the beauty and glory of God is engraven upon Christ he is a lovely thing He was a sweet flower planted in the Womb of a Virgin and grew out there without the least spot of sin Surely as man he is a very lovely thing how much more as he is God shining with the same Rays of Glory that God hath But is not Christ a lovely thing as our Mediatour Do you not love to look upon him sitting at Gods right hand and pleading your Cause for you How lovely is he in this Office 3. Justification by Christ is a lovely thing It is a glorious Garment and beauteous Robe more beauteous than the Righteousness of the most holy Angels Whoever puts it on are as pure as if they had no spot or dirt of sin upon them 4. Pardon of Sin is a lovely thing every Saint longs to have a sight and tast of it it made the poor woman that came in weeping to go out rejoycing from Jesus Christ Her sins which are many are forgiven her it was the most golden day that ever came over her head 5. Peace of Conscience is a lovely thing The Saints are ravished with the sweetness of it it grows like a Rose in their bosoms when 't is once planted there and they can never cease smelling at it it fills their senses with delicate Odour and makes them look fresh and green all their days Reas 9. It is a transcendent Priviledg to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven if we consider how unworthy we are to know them unworthy to have such Jewels hang at our ears unworthy to have such Wine put into our old Bottles and to have such golden Mines grow in the earthy Bowels of our Minds and Understandings As the Apostle saith We 2 Cor. 4. 7. have this treasure in earthen vessels The Mysteries of the Gospel are Gods Treasures and we are but poor earthen Vessels unworthy to have such Divine treasures put into such earthen Caskets such Oyster-shells The Angels those golden Vessels and Velvet-Caskets think themselves unworthy to have his Mysteries and Treasures put into them unworthy to know him and see him and therefore the Seraphims each of which Isa 6. 2. had six Wings with two they did flie to signifie Celerrimae Ministeria the swiftness of their Ministry and with two did cover their faces as men do when they look upon the Sun to signifie That they cannot endure the splendor and brightness of Gods face and withal that they are unworthy to see his face and with two they did cover their feet that is their secret parts for so doth the word feet signifie in Scripture not only our feet wherewith we go upon the ground but the secret and unclean parts of Man Isa 7. 20. The Angels therefore appearing in the shape of Man did cover those parts not as if there were any stain of sin upon those blessed Creatures but as ashamed of their perfections as imperfections in comparison of God's infinite and incomperable perfections If the Angels how much more are Men who are Sinners unworthy to know God in Jesus Christ We shall now pass to the Application of this Doctrine And first Vse 1. Prize then the preaching of the Gospel that 's the looking-glass in which you behold the Mysteries of Heaven 1. It lays open the
and falling at his feet thou ragest Well Christ rides on still in the Chariot of his word conquering and to conquer one or other way conquer he will if he cannot conquer thee with love he 'l kill thee in wrath Those that do yield he saves those that will not he slays 4. Christ will Preach over all these Truths again in Hell-flames to thee Thou keepest thy sins and lusts and wilt by no means send them away thou makest nothing of the Word of God because dispensed by Man I tell thee all the Sermons thou now hearest against thy sins all the Truths of God shall one day be Preach'd over again in flames of Fire to thine eternal horrour and that will be a long Sermon All the Sermons of Repentance and Grace thou heard'st here in thy life-time shall in Hell be brought fresh to thy memory thy Conscience shall then Preach them all over to thee in Hell-flames and then 't wil be a woful Sermon Now the Sermon is but an hour long look upon the glass 't is turned and while the glass is running we are Preaching Preaching thee if it be possible into a state of grace this Sermon is but a short Sermon it will end anon and while this glass is running thy glass is running and thy life is hastening but in Hell there 's no glass turned up This and all the Sermons thou ever heard'st will there in flames be Preach'd over to thee again throughout eternity Oh tremble at it It will be a woful Sermon and a long Sermon 't will never have an end Vse 3. Here 's rare comfort to weak grace To them that are but new beginners you complain your grace is but little My Beloved you shall have more 1. Grace at first is but little An Infant when 't is new-born is but little a Tree when 't is first planted is but a little Graff The Cloud that over-spreads the Heavens was at first no bigger than a mans hand Object 1. But I am a Christian of long standing and yet my grace is but little Were I but a new beginner 't were something but I am a long stander yet a short Christian Answ 1. Truly my Beloved blame thy self then chide thy self that thou art a Christian of a long standing and of a short stature It is a disgrace to be so as 't is a disgrace to be an old man and yet a dwarf Christ chides his Disciples for it though they were but of one or two years standing in his School yet he chides them because they had so little Matth. 8. 26. Faith Besides Those that have less Grace shall have less Glory But yet I must say this much 2. That every thing in this life is but little David saith Psal 39. 5. Thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth A small measure the Lord knows David lived in all probability threescore years and ten he was King of Judah and Israel forty years and yet he called it but an hand-breadth 3. Thou measurest thy grace with what thou should'st be and then it seems but little A great deal of grace measured with what thou should'st be is but little As Augustine saith Maxima eorum quae scimus Minima eorum quae Ignoramus The much nay most we know is the least of what we do not know so the most we are is the least of what we should be the most we do is the least of what we should do Great Saints are but little to what they should be 4. Compare thy grace with times past and then it may be it is not little and that thou must do Object 2. But I have trifled away my time the time I should have got grace in The Ant provides her meat in summer and gathers her food in the harvest But I have spent my time of gathering and is there any hope that I shall have more 1. Humble thy self for 't is a wondrous sin to lose time because we have but a time to glorifie God here and by our losing of time God doth lose his Glory 2. Yet though thou hast loytered away thy time do not limit Gods time because thou hast past away thy time do not say that Gods time is past 3. It may be thy time of growing is not come yet As Children some shoot up presently in their first years others do not grow till they are sixteen or twenty years and these at last out-grow the others some Saints grow more at first others grow more at last Trees bring forth their fruit in different seasons some sooner and some later There is the first ripe fruit and there is the latter fruit some Trees have their fruit ripe and ready with the spring others not till August others not till Winter there 's the Summer-fruit and there is the Winter-fruit One tree goeth before and hath her fruit ripe one month another hath its fruit the next month another follows and hath its fruit the next month after that And this is the Masters Wisdom that he may have new fruit every month to serve his Table and please his palate so doth God Object 3. But I am a withered tree I did bear fruit but now do not I was once fresh and green but now am dry and blasted I am in part an Apostate I am fallen from my first love I was good and now am worse I do not bear the fruit I did Is there any hopes for me Answ Yes thou mayst recover and therefore away to Prayer and send quickly for the spirit Lose no time I will give you an Instance in another case Nebuchadnezzar was a great tree whose height did reach Dan. 4. 11. 12 14 15. to heaven and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth The leaves thereof were fair and the fruit thereof much the beasts of the field had shadow under it and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof and all flesh was fed of it And this great Tree Nebuchadnezzar was lopt down fearfully and withered dreadfully he was driven from among men and cast off from his Kingdom seven years But yet the stump of his roots was left in the earth with a band of Iron and Brass To signifie that his Kingdom was reserved for him and that he should revive again So thou hast been it may be an high Tree whose top of profession did reach up to Heaven and all the fowls of the air the Saints that live about thee were wont to fly and sit under the boughs and branches of thy gifts to receive Counsel and Direction from thee And now thy leaves are fallen and thy branches cut thy graces lopt thy gifts withered and thou thinkest therefore thou art forsaken But oh man Is not there a stump of thy roots left in the earth with a band of Iron and Brass A stump of Faith and Repentance and panting after Christ As long as there is a stump left thou wilt revive again Vse 4. Shall more grace
of life or spirit of lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 7. and man became a living soul So when thou lyest dead before the Lord without any life or breath of Prayer in thee thou canst not so much as breathe before him he 'l breathe a Soul of Prayer into thee he 'l put breath into thee as he did into Acts 9. 11. Saul Behold he prayeth saith God 2. Sometimes a man sends a gift to one that never asked him for it so doth God sometimes send his gifts of grace to them that never ask for it he gives them before they ask it Opposers and Persecutors are said to be the greatest Sinners yet saith Christ upon the Cross Father forgive them they know not what they do he spake it of those that put him to Death Some might have said Lord they are opposers of thee even to the Death be it so saith Christ I have mercy for opposers too and for persecutors too Father forgive them they know not what they do But Lord they do not beg for pardon wilt thou give such a kindness to them that ask not for it They do not acknowledg their fault if thou wilt shew mercy to them stay till they acknowledg their fault and be humbled and ask pardon nay saith Christ I will prevent poor sinners with my love Though they do not ask forgiveness yet I beg forgiveness Father forgive them But Lord these are great sinners and less mercy would serve the turn forgiveness is a great mercy no saith Christ no mercy less than forgiveness will serve the turn they 'l be never the better for any mercy without forgiveness therefore they shall have it Father forgive them but forgiveness is a great mercy be it so saith Christ I know what I do I have great mercy the greatest mercy for the greatest sinners and because they cannot ask it I will ask it for them Father forgive them Vse 6. Wo to you Professors that have not true grace from Matth 13. 12. Luk. 8. 18. them shall be taken away even that which they have Luke saith From them shall be taken that which they seem to have For if we speak of true grace they have not grace only seem to have it They seem to be holy and their seeming holiness shall be taken from them They seem to believe and their seeming Faith shall be taken from them They seem to repent and their seeming Repentance shall be taken from them They Matth. 13. 20. seem to joy in Christ and in Mercy and the Promises but their seeming joy shall be taken from them The spirit doth but assume them he doth not inform them nor enliven them As the dead bodies which Angels assume for a time they seem to live and talk and eat and drink but when the Angel leaves them because they were not the Angels proper bodies they vanish away and lose that life they did seem to have So the Spirit of God doth assume and act the souls of many men in the Church for a time to do service for God by them and all that while they pray and preach and hear and walk up and down in Duty out of one Duty into another and the Spirit leaves them because he did but assume them and then they drop down dead as indeed they are and always were Thus the Spirit did assume Judas for a time Judas was but a dead man in soul all the time he was with Christ only the Spirit of God assumed him and acted him and he followed Christ and went about Preaching the Gospel with the other Disciples but when the Spirit left him he betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver that was his proper work and despaired and dyed Vse 7. This should put the Saints upon a serious Tryal of their graces The Point tells you that where there are beginnings of true grace God will make rich Additions of more grace Oh then try what grace yours is if it be true grace God will give more grace As the Apostle saith He that hath begun a good work in you will perfect it If it be a good work God will perfect it he will cherish his own work Sirs God will not nurse up a spurious seed Bastard grace whereof he is not the Father Oh! then all you that would taste comfort from this Point try your graces The Evangelical Hypocrite is he I aim at There is Gospel-Hypocrisie so I call it for where the Gospel comes there are two sorts of Persons that walk beside it 1. Some directly oppose the Doctrine of it and those are Justitiaries that set up their own Righteousness as the Jews Rom. 9. 31 32. did And therefore it is said That Christ came to his own and his John 1. 11. own received him not And such are the Papists at this day who are justly by our Divines said to answer to the Jewish Pharisees These are Christian Pharisees they receive Christ in Name but set up their own Righteousness and will be justified by their own Works and saved by their own Merits 2. Others there are that receive the Gospel and so decry all their own Righteousness and cry up Christ they see nothing in themselves and look for all from Christ renouncing their own Righteousness and resting upon Christ alone for salvation These are of divers sorts 1. Some receive Christ with an Historical lifeless Faith they believe in Christ but will not part with their sins they gladly embrace Christ as a Saviour but oppose Holiness and will not change their lives and because Christ came into the World to save sinners they take liberty to sin and hope to be saved as well as any These are those we call our large Protestants who are as great Enemies to Christ as Papists are The Papists persecute the true Christians in the Point of Doctrine and these Enemies within us persecute the true Christians in Point of Holiness The Papists they will be saved by works without Faith these will be saved by Faith without works These are spots in our feasts The Epistles of James and John were written as Antidotes against this kind of poyson And Jude writes against these men ungodly men turning the Vers 4. grace of God into lasciviousness Arguing from mercy to liberty which is the Divils Logick Continuing in sin that grace may abound And my Beloved in this lyeth the very form of an Evangelical Hypocrite in denying his own Righteousness to establish his sin he will advance Christ to advance his lust Dub. But how can open sinners keep their lusts live in visible prophaneness and yet believe in Christ Sol. Because the Gospel brings the sweetest and highest Consolations along with it And therefore every man under sense of sin will fly thither for Sanctuary and hide himself under the Canopy of the Gospels mercy A man that travels under the fiery Beams of the Sun in an hot day the cool shadow of a Tree is very
refreshing and he will sit there and rest himself under it Men that have their feet or their arms scalded will put them into cold water which gives them ease though it gives them no cure yet because it gives them ease there they keep them So men whose Consciences are scalded with wrath Oh! now the Gospel and Justification by Faith in Christ is very sweet And so they are eased by it never cured by it and therefore you shall find them disclaim all works and cry up grace only when Christ is offered and general notice given them that there is Mercy and Hope for great Sinners this fills them with joy and peace But wherein doth these mens hypocrisie appear They receive Jesus Christ only for ease I say a false heart receives Christ only to ease him to ease him of the terrour of Conscience and to ease him of the work of Obedience And here prophane Sinners find great ease The weight of their guilty Consciences would press and sink them down but that they bear up upon the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Oh! he dyed for Sinners and paid our debt and now they are cheerful and easie they can sin and be easie follow their drunkenness and be easie swim in their uncleanness and be easie for they make the Righteousness of Christ their Bladder to swim upon and say what you will to them they will not sink If you ask one of these drunkards and haters of the Saints and railers at godliness I say if you ask them Do you believe in Christ yes say they Believe yea we believe exceedingly and so they do the truth is they believe beyond measure but they believe and rest upon Jesus Christ to ease themselves of sanctification they cannot but see the want of it and they cannot ease themselves but by pleading that Christ is holy and that though they have it not yet Christ hath it This is a great ease to their thoughts at the present and thus they receive Christ Oh Sirs that you would consider the sad condition of this man whose plagues shall be made wonderful whose Conscience suits him still for sin and then looks up to Christ and rests there and hears Sermons but then salves up all with the Righteousness of Christ and considers often that his ways are evil but never suspects his faith to be evil Then he is taken with Death and then looks up to Christ at last the snuff dyes and his Sun sets and darkness approacheth and then instead of heaven embraceth flames and what is it that hath deceived these men Oh! their Faith hath deceived them they believed they might have had Christ and Sin too and then in Hell they wish Oh! that I had considered and feared this before and will you not fear now I charge you then think not your Estates good because you rest on Christ and look for salvation by him only 2. There are others who receive Jesus Christ not only into their belief but into their bosoms not only into their heads but also into their hearts They have a great work upon them the Gospel doth not only Irradiate their minds but also in a great measure Captivate their Wills they have affections to Christ and sweet motions to holy things kindled in their hearts They receive the word with joy and delight Matth. 13. they fall into raptures of love to and admiration of Jesus Christ they do not only assent to the Doctrine of Justification by Christ but are made partakers of the Holy Ghost There is a change wrought in them they seem to be washed 2 Pet. 2 20. and sanctified in the blood of Christ having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And so they shine in the surface of their outward lives The hypocrisie of the heart springs from defect of light in the mind The want of saving Illumination in the understanding is the reason of the hypocrisie of the heart These two faculties the Vnderstanding and the Will live very near one another if they be not really the same some say they are but one and the same power or faculty of the soul and so there is a real Identity of the Will and Understanding saying that the Will is Intellectus extensus others affirm that they are faculties really distinct However it is by all concluded that there must in order of nature be light before choice knowledg before election the Intellectual creature must see before it can determine or resolve upon Now I say the imperfect and unsound resolution of the soul flows from defect of light The hypocrisie of the heart springs from the want of a saving Illumination in the Understanding This appears in the Parable of the Virgins of whom the Lord Christ saith That five were wise and five were foolish The vanity of the one sprang from their folly the provision of Oyl the others made sprang from their Wisdom You know it 's frequent in Solomons Proverbs to call the upright and godly man the wise man the sinner and hypocrite the fool the power of sin lyeth in the power of darkness The strength of a State in the Wisdom of its Council 1. The Understanding is the first inlet of Sin and Grace this is that which opens and shuts to all life and sin When Satan laid his Train and Powder-plot to blow up all the World by the sin of one man he first enters into dispute with Eve and as the Apostle saith deceived her The woman was deceived and so darkned her mind with a mist 1 Tim. 2. 14. the serpent crept into her heart through the door of her Vnderstanding There could no sin get into the Will were there not an error first in the Vnderstanding 2. And as the mind is the first inlet into sin so it is the first door that lets in grace Sanctifie them through thy truth thy John 17. 17. John 12. 35. word is truth Walk while you have the light lest darkness come upon you Satan knew if light came in Christ would come in Matth. 13. 15. 3. Divine light is very powerful it hath a mighty influence to change and renew the heart We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord All Divine light of glory works strongly if hypocrites had it their hearts would be sincere Not that bare light can change the will but the Lord works by it When the Lord comes with life he comes with light Awake thou that sleepest Ephes 5. 14. arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light When the spirit comes all his work is expressed by conviction of sin of righteousness and of judgment convince one effectually and you convert him You shall know the truth John 8. 32. saith Christ and it shall make you free that is from your bondage
saith What will it avail thee Tho. a Kempis to dispute profoundly of the Trinity if thou be void of grace and displease the Trinity High words surely make a man neither holy nor just but grace makes him dear to God It is vanity to seek after fading riches it is vanity to gape after withering honours vanity it is to wish to live long and to be careless to live well But now many will say grace doth increase in us we do reach after more grace and this many false hearts say they do My Beloved false grace may grow and doth lengthen out in desires and dimensions many that are Hypocrites glory in this that their graces grow I must therefore shew you the difference between the increase of true grace and counterfeit grace 1. The Hypocrite grows out of Emulation The true Saint grows out of love to goodness The Hypocrite is grieved that others go beyond him and over-match him not love to grace but a spirit of envy makes him to advance The true Saint grows out of Duty to God to bring in more glory to his Name The growth of others is matter of his joy not of his repining He is glad that God is better served though it be by another his only grief is that himself can serve him no better 2. The Hypocrite another sort of them groweth in Parts but not in the Power of godliness in gifts and curiosities but not in vital and Divine quicknings In Knowledg and Speculations but not in strength against sin and temptations Judas by conversing with Christ could not but grow in Knowledg but being not incorporate into Christ never grew in grace But the true Saint grows in his spiritual life in Union to Christ in Communion with God The Hypocrite may grow in quantity but not in quality the real Saint grows as much in quality as in quantity 3. The Hypocrite may grow more and more in hearing the word but the Saint grows in tasting the word and in tasting that most deliciously which is most spiritual The Hypocrite longs more after new truths but the Saint tastes old Promises with new affections and old truths with a new appetite The Knowledg of an Hypocrite may grow bigger but the Knowledg of a Saint grows more savoury and judicious The Hypocrite may know more Objects than he did before but the Saint relishes the things more sweetly which he knew before The Hypocrite may grow in enlargements and pour out longer Prayers but the Saint prays more spiritually The Hypocrites zeal may be a great fire but the Saints zeal is more heavenly and discreet there is more incense in his golden censer his love more solid and active more to God and less to himself and the world The hypocrite is like a tree that bears great Apples but they are sower but the Saint the fruit he bears it may be are not such big Apples but they are sweet Apples the juice is better that gives them a more pleasant relish in Gods palate There is a sweeter juice of love and kindness and godly sorrow and filial delight in God in a Saints duties and here the Saints growth chiefly lyes his fruit groweth more ripe and mellow and so more pleasant and sweet His Prayers are not bigger in quantity but better in quality he grows in choiceness of spirit he comes to the Throne of grace with a more precious esteem of Christ upon his heart He comes to the word with a dearer thirst upon his palate 't is the same Christ that is set still before him but he relisheth Christ more sweetly receiveth and tasteth the same promises more ravishingly trembleth at the same threatnings more tenderly and meltingly Whereas the hypocrite is cloyed with the word if it be not dish'd up to his palate but the Saints palate is spiritualized to the word The hypocrites tast of Sermons is flatted by reading of Books but the Saints taste is quickned by the sense of his wants For this is the true use of reading and the end of Knowledg To make VS more sensible of our wants and make Christ more excellent in our eyes Therefore in taking notes the hypocrite picks out matter here and there according to his nice and licquorish palate but the hungry Saint takes all and feeds upon all that comes before him feeling his need to be stirred up to consider what he knows Vse 9. Here 's a sweet ground to assure the Saints perseverance To him that hath grace he shall not lose it but more shall be given him he shall not lose what he hath but he shall have more than he hath he shall not fall away but stand faster They that fall away are those that have not truth of grace at all Whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath But the poor Saint that hath To him shall be given and he shall have more abundance He shall be so far from losing grace that he shall have more grace Dub. But my grace is but little I cannot stand Sol. God shall make thee stand Rom. 14. 4. Where disputing of him that is weak in the faith Vers 1. saith he Vers 4. HE shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand The more weak thou art the more tender God will be over thee if thou canst not stand he will make thee stand thou shalt stand in his arms In Christ you have not only the graces of Christ but the spirit of Christ I pray you mark it 1. If Adam had stood how long we know not it may be had he stood the first shock of Satans temptation all his Posterity should have had that assistance of the Spirit that they should have never fallen as the Holy Angels that were contented with their first station and abode in the truth when the other Angels fell this was their Obedience that they were loyal in the day of their great Tryal when the others their Fellow angels rebelled and their reward was That they are confirmed in their happy condition and secured in it so if Adam hemself in whom we were all one man had stood I say if he therefore had stood it out to the last both he and all his Posterity should have had the continual and constant assistance of the Spirit and been confirmed so as never to have fallen And the ground is the rule of Justice for if he falling all his Posterity are forsaken of God and put under the Reign of Sin and Death and Satan then he standing all his Posterity should have had the perpetual Presence of Gods Spirit and been under the everlasting Reign of the Spirit of grace and life 2. But now Jesus Christ the second Adam who was the Head of the new seed and family he stood and therefore propagates to all his Posterity the perennious Presence and constant assistance of the Spirit whereby being once begotten of him they live for ever and abide in him As in Adams fall
at If you mean to shine as Angels do the Work of God with Angels if you would be where Christ is be at the work that Christ was And let me tell you your time is but short and you have done but little work none at all to purpose and 't is not long till your Crown shall be put upon your head and will you not be ashamed then to wear so rich a Crown for so poor a Service To have God pay you so great wages for so little work done Certainly if ever it come to your share to be saved you will when the Crown is putting upon your head blush for shame to think of your cowardise and your laziness that you should wear a Crown that have done so little work Fifthly The Lord will do thy work do thou but his work and he will do thine The Lord will take the care and charge of thee to bring about thy ends for thee many of you are sparing in Christs work because of so many distractions of your own others of you wave Christs work out of love to your own I mean the World What will become of my Family Wife and Children Oh unbelieving wretches set your hearts to do Gods Work and he 'l take the care of your Families and Children upon himself set thy face to the Sun and these shadows will follow you The Lord is a sun and a shield the Psal 84. 11. Lord will give grace and glory the Lord will give grace i. e. honour and esteem among men the favour of men and glory too in the World No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly Set thy face then toward this glorious Sun serve him and these shadows will follow thee Solomon you know askt for Wisdom that he might discern between good and bad and judg the people and God tells him because thou hast asked this thing and hast not asked riohes and honours therefore I will give thee riches and honours Solomon his great care and work was to rule a State well and the Lord gave him all the rest he set his face to the Sun and the shadows followed him Oh then Sirs Act for God up and be doing do his work and he 'l do yours There are these three Things attend the man that gives himself to do work for God 1. There shall not any evil hurt thee The three children were in the fire and yet the fire did not could not hurt them In the fire and in the water saith God I will be with thee there shall not any evil hurt thee Whereas if thou dost not thy good things shall they shall hurt thee Thy riches and thine honours they shall lift thee up and there make thy head giddy upon the top of thy glory and then thou comest tumbling down like a drunken fool into shame and hell it self Tolluntur in altum ut lapsa graviore ruant 2. All creatures in Heaven and Earth shall serve the man that serves his God The Whale shall serve Jonah to carry him to the shore Indeed the poor man at that time ran from Gods work yet because he was his Servant the fish shall swallow him that it might save him The Ravens shall feed Elijah I will hear the heavens saith God and they shall Hos 2. 21. 22 hear the earth and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyl and they shall hear Jezreel Thus all creatures in Heaven and Earth shall serve that man that serves his God Whereas else they all groan under thee and above thee The Heavens above groan over the sinner and cry out How long Lord how long shall we bestow our influence upon this Enemy of thine The Earth groans under the unprofitable servant and crys out How long Lord how long shall I bear this useless burden Nay Christ himself is weary of this fruitless Tree how long shall we stand Cut it down why cumbers it the ground 3. Thou that art at thy Lords work the Angels shall come out of Heaven to guard thee thou art a greater man than the greatest General under the Sun thou hast the Angels to be thy Life-guard Are they not all ministring spirits Heb. 1. 14. sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation And therefore let 's see who dare touch thee Take heed Matth. 18. 10. saith Christ that ye despise or hurt not one of these little ones For I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven Jacob saw a ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven and Angels descending and ascending Vse 10. The last Vse shall shew you how God makes Additions to his Saints graces And herein his Methods are various if not unsearchable yet by fathoming we may sound some of them though not the bottom As grace it self is a Mystery so the increase of grace especially being carried on by such Mysteries And therefore the contrivement whereby God increaseth grace is excellent worth the knowing that we may know what he is doing with us in his Providences and may read the Mind of God in many of his proceedings In a word how shall we help on the work if we know not Gods Method in working 1. The Lord increaseth grace in his People by their Faith Faith is one of the Graces and therefore needs support her self but she is the mouth of all the rest that speaks for them to God in Prayer and sucks nutriment for them out of the Breasts of the Promises Sirs The case is this Faith lives upon Christ and all the Graces live upon Faith When there is a famine in the Land of the soul Faith goeth up to our Brother Joseph in Egypt and brngs home Corn Faith is the Mother-grace and as the old bird the Dam flyeth abroad and fetcheth in food to her young ones and distributes it to them all in the nest So Faith takes Wing when the graces sit hungry and in want at home I say then Faith takes Wing and flyeth to Christ in the promise she comes home with her mouth full and serves all the graces they are fed by her And therefore the Scripture saith That the just lives by faith Which expression the Apostle Paul makes use of in two of his Epistles First in Rom. 1. 17 The just shall live by faith that is in respect of forgiveness of sin and in respect of Righteousness or Justification before God But in Heb. 10. 38 where he useth this same phrase The just shall live by faith The Apostle speaks of the Saints perseverance and standing fast in all their troubles and temptations Now Faith is the prime grace that helps and succours all the rest Hope lives upon Faith for the hope of a Christian is but poor in fruition we can hope no longer than we believe He that hopes and expects the things promised must by Faith live upon the certainty of the promise
can you produce as fruits of your Election and first fruits of your Salvation When you passed through the new birth what were your pangs How were your throws 3. Sleep takes away sense and feeling The man that is lockt up in sleep as he hears not when you call him not seeth you though you stand before him so he feels not though you jog him by the elbow And therefore God to increase his Saints graces keeps their feeling awake and lively their sense of sin is still fresh in them upon their Consciences God keeps open their wounds of godly sorrow that they bleed afresh upon every good occasion they feel their wants and spiritual defects their spiritual poverty they feel how little they grow in grace they feel how weak their spiritual life is how feeble their strength how faint their faith how languid their Communion with God how cold their affections are to Christ and are therefore very sedulous to supply what is lacking to their graces and to be found in an acceptable state at their Lords coming 1. They feel the knocks of the spirit and are ready to open unto and receive him 2. They feel Gods retreat and absence from their souls 3. They feel when they work by the spirit or by their own strength When they pray in the spirit or by their own gifts and parts 12thly God increaseth his Saints graces by their exercise of their graces Herein do I exercise my self saith Paul to Act. 24. 16. have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man Paul by exercising a pure Conscience kept a pure Conscience so must every Saint that would be skilful at his weapons be training and exercising himself in his postures 1. There 's no grace the Christian hath but the Lord calls for its daily exercise Pray but how continually Continue in Col. 4. 2. prayer Rejoyce But when Alway Rejoyce in the Lord alway Phil. 4. 4. Give thanks for what In every thing 2. What makes garments breed moths but lying in the 1 Thes 5. 18. Chest or Coffer And Iron to rust and the stone to gather Moss but to lye still What makes water in a pond to gather Mud but because 't is standing water 3. This makes God to exercise our graces It may be YOV will not exercise grace your selves and therefore God steps in and doth it for you he provides service and work for your graces And truly though when God comes to exercise your graces it is sharp for the time and tedious yet it is gainful to you and very advantageous Graces do never increase and thrive so much as when God himself doth exercise them and find employment for them Oh ye Saints God seeth your graces would decline and go behind-hand in you did he not cut out work for them He brings thee into a Labyrinth of straits to exercise thy Faith In thy prosperity and fulness Faith in God is laid aside as useless and thou relyest upon thine own props and therefore God plungeth thee into straits that thou mayst exercise thy Faith on him He loads thee with reproaches to exercise thy humility he encounters thee with the other affliction to exercise thy patience Poor occurrences and trifles not worth the naming that meet thee every day in thy way these distemper thee and make thee peevish and then God sends some weighty load of affliction on thee to exercise thy humility and patience to purpose saith he I will make thee cry out for something Oh ye secure Saints that have laid down your Watch and are grown remiss in your walkings I do assure you God hath some sharp scourges and severities to exercise you with There are some of you whom I know God hath a sharp scourge for 4. Exercise of grace keeps Satan out of us at a distance from us from being able to close in with us What keeps an Enemy from coming in to a man but by acting his weapon and holding him still at the swords point What is it that keeps an Army at distance but the playing of the Ordinance else they would come up to the City and scale the walls So my Beloved 'T is the exercise of your graces that stand between Satan and your graces The exercise of Divine Meditation keeps Satan out of your Thoughts and Meditations 5. Either exercise thy grace or Satan will act thy corruption As one Bucket goeth down the other riseth There is a principle of sin within which like a malignant party watcheth for such a time to step into the saddle and it is easier to keep it down than to pull it down 13. God keeps up and improves the graces of his people by giving them discontents in the creature he affords them no ease nor rest in any condition The Lord crosseth them of what they look for in this world They desire such and such a comfort and if they might have it oh they promise themselves much happiness and rest in it Will ye see now how the Lord deals with them if they belong to him Either he flatly denieth them the comfort they desire they shall not have it or else he gives it them but with an hundred crosses and discontents with it He imbitters the happiness and sweetness they promised themselves in it and then they cry out Now we see that all is vanity and vexation See ye it not by experience That what outward comfort a Saint delights in most in that God crosseth him most When they sit down to feed upon and enjoy it the Lord mingleth some tart sauce or other with it that their expectation is broken and find it not what they promised it would be to them like Beer it hath a tang with it something that doth displease them with it Thus I say doth the Lord deal with his Saints that belong to him their dearest comfort he pours some or other unpleasing ingredient into it they shall not have their full pleasure in it that he may wean them from it to himself Saints if God hath a mind to save you he 'l let nothing go away with your love from him and therefore he will put into every worldly comfort some correctives to abate your delight in it and that you may not take up your rest in it If such an outward comfort be sweet it shall be a sweet-bryar to thee and scratch thee If another comfort be a Rose to thee which thou delightest to smell at it shall be a Rose with prickles to thee God will make it so that thy heart may be indifferent to it I say thou shalt have discontent in every thing in every comfort thou enjoyest in every kind of life thou livest the single state and the married state shall have their thorns and burdens If thou hast an Husband or a Wife thou shalt have them with prickles thou shalt have riches and wealth with adhering crosses and vexations thou shalt have credit with envy and biting emulations thou
ever doubt of I say Satan tempts before Conversion namely to hinder us from entring the ways of grace and to keep us out of Christ For if we be once in Christ we are gone from him he can hurt us no more than he can Christ and you may see how far his malice can reach The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head that is his power The seed of the serpent shall bruise his heel that is his humanity When thou art once in Christ he can bruise but thy heel he may stir up affliction bring thee to thy grave but shall never bring thy soul to Hell At the best pain can but restrain your lusts it cannot heal them A disease can but abate the acts of sin it can never destroy the life of sin Death it self cannot kill sin the sins of wicked men live when they are dead The grave cannot consume them nor the fire of hell waste their strength the sins of unbelievers shall remain not only in their guilt but in their power to all eternity Quest But how does Satan hinder our conversion Answ By kindling a stronger love in us to sin There is in all men by nature a love to sin and Satan comes and blows that fire into a flame and so our love becomes predominant and afterwards it becomes a great work to un-love that sin 2. Satan tempts the unconverted these two ways 1. By inspiring his false Prophets and Ministers Thus he 1 King 22. 22. 1 King 22. 4 5. devised Ahabs destruction I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets And again Ahab King of Israel asked Jehosaphat King of Judah who came to see him whether he would go with him to Battel to Ramoth Gilead Well the King of Judah promised the King of Israel and told him saying I am as thou art my people as thy people my horses as thy horses Afterwards Jehosaphat said nnto the King of Israel enquire I pray thee at the word of the Lord to day Then the King of Israel gathered the prophets that is Vers 6. the false prophets inspired by Satan together about four hundred men and said unto them Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battel or shall I forbear and they said go up for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the King Consider it seriously They that admininister the Oracles of God are the greatest mercies or greatest curses When they drop from their lips nothing but Gods mind they are mercies if not they are curses 2. Satan tempts the unconverted by numbering more false prophets than true For when Satan cannot act for Truth on his side he will act by number He will weigh the balance by number when he cannot by truth he will disgrace truth by the greatness and multitude of number against it for he knows what will take among carnal and ignorant men they are carried with quantity more than quality What are you saith Satan that are but one or two wiser than so many Can truth sit upon the lips of so few If it were truth why should not others know it as well as you Why should so many be ignorant of it Thus he carried his device upon the wings of multitude against Ahab to hatch his design against 1 Reg. 22. 6. Ahab he did sit upon the spirits of four hundred prophets against one Micajah so there are many loose lives against one Christ though there be many now a days that teach men by their words and doings that men may live loosely yet Christ saith Broad is the way to destruction and narrow is the way to life So that the fewness of those that carry on the way to life is a Testimony of the truth of it 3. Satan tempts the unconverted by putting men out of conceit with the godly that they are proud and Hypocrites Secondly Satan tempts men in conversion He can play his part here also he is cunning everywhere to destroy if he cannot keep sinners from conversion he will hinder them in conversion Now Satan temps men in conversion 1. By putting hard thoughts of God himself into them and therefore no marvel if they have hard thoughts of godly men When such a soul is coming unto God he is by Satan way-laid with this namely that God will never pardon him he would repent but dares not he takes God for his Enemy Satan would fain make a poor soul that 's coming unto God think that God is his Enemy and will not save him it is one of his Master-pieces to bring the love and good-will of God into suspition Oh! saith he why should I repent I shall not be accepted and this is no small weapon And thus Satan deals with grown Saints and strong Christians and therefore surely the temptation is a strong Engine it hath more than ordinary strength in it He practised thus against Job 1. 16. Job The fire of God saith the messenger is fallen from heaven and hath burnt up the sheep Mark ye why did Satan consume Jobs sheep with fire He stirred up the Sabeans Vers 14 15. to take away his Oxen and Asses and why not the sheep why to provoke Job if he could to be passionate against God and for that was his great design to curse and blaspheme God to beget an opinion in Job that God was now his Enemy as well as Man The fire of God is fallen upon the sheep thou canst not put this off as thou mightst do the other and say this is but the malice or covetousness of the Sabeans that rob me of my goods no thou shalt see now that God himself is angry heaven frowns upon thee the fire of God consumes thee Turn over the Records of all antiquity and see whether ever God dealt thus with any but those cursed Sodomites upon whom God rained fire from heaven Was God their enemy in that punishment Behold he sends such an one upon thee though God hates nothing so much as sin yea nothing but sin yet he would fain save the sinner Now then bring your souls to this either I will be a natural man still or else I will get into Jesus Christ Sirs If you live in sin you will lose your souls if you throw away sin you shall be received into the bosom of Christs love 2. In conversion one device by which Satan tempts is when poor creatures are coming home to God to fright them with fearful blasphemies As for example he will first tempt or suggest to thee that there is no God and this temptation springs immediately from Satans hatred of God he would annihilate God But now to oppose Satan in this his device how shall I encounter him Thou must arm thy self against this temptation thus Answ 1. Tell him Satan thou knowest there is a God thou wouldst have me believe there is no God and yet thou knowest that there is a God The Devils also believe
any one whoever he be that finds his own guiltiness and death and is affected with it in his heart Every burdened sinner hearing Christ propounded in the Covenant of Grace with this only condition of believing in him may come to him for life Christ and the Covenant of Grace is offered to unregeneraete Mr. Wilson Help to Faith 80 81. Ibid. men who being enabled by Gods Spirit to perform the condition which is to believe in Christ Christ is theirs A man must not stay to receive Christ till he first find in himself regeneration and repentance towards God which is wrought out of it but he must first believe that in Christ he may receive the promised Spirit unto his new creation or conversion unto God for Christ is given to give us these things he is sent to bless men in turning them from their sins And Act. 3. 26. Act. 5. 31. him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins And therefore we are not to look first to find Repentance and Conversion in our selves and then come to Christ to obtain forgiveness but we must seek both in him we must take Christ that we may have these from him as the woman that had an incurable Issue 1. Believed that she should be healed if she touch't the Hem of Christs garment 2. She ventured and resolved in her self to touch him 3. Upon the touch felt in her self that she was healed so poor sinners that feel loathsom diseases of sin in them are to go and venture to touch Christ and to expect pardon and ho liness from him And therefore see your error you who will not believe till you have first grace strengthening you to duty and subduing sin in you if you could clear up your Conversion and find these things in you then you could believe and not else and therefore thou must first believe in Christ before thou canst clear up thy Conversion to thee To answer this Branch how shall I believe till I clear up my Conversion Thirdly There is a double Act of Faith 1. There is indeed an act of Faith which cannot be had Mr. Arcker P. 30. till this be had which Divines call the reflect act where by a soul believes that it doth believe believes that it is in Christ bebelives that it is in a saved condition before this act can be there must be repentance and holiness and tryal of our graces Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own 2 Cor. 13. 5. selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates This act presupposeth Faith and is a knowing that we have Faith This is not the necessary means to salvation but to assurance and comfort 2. There is another act of Faith namely the direct act which is believing not a believing that I do believe nor a believing that Jesus Christ is mine but a believing on Christ that Christ may be mine and that I may be saved and sanctified by him and this must be before we can repent we must not stay from this act of Faith till we can clear up our Conversion to us but believe in Christ that we may love God and clear up our Conversion to our selves For mark you Faith is one part or grace of thy Conversion Thou canst not clear up thy conversion till thou dost believe surely then thou must first believe also in Christ as well as repent that thou mayst clear up thy conversion to thy soul And therefore when Satan shall tempt thee what hast thou to do to cast thy self upon Christ seeing thou knowest not that he is thine What right hast thou to put thy self on Christ and art not sure he is thine Oh saith a soul if I might trust my self on Christ I would Thou mayst cast thy soul upon Christ before thou knowest Note him to be thine Observe there is a twofold trusting and relying upon Christ 1. The one is at a venture without a perswasion Mr. Archer p. 20. of an Interest in him grounded on Gods free offer of him to all sorts of people This is the ground of our first believing on our first coming to him and entertaining of him for if this were not people would never receive him This seems to be no more than a confidence in his ability and willingness to save all that come to him Thus the man that had the leprosie came and cast himself on Christ at a venture he knew that Christ could heal him and therefore faith he Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean He is not sure that Christ would heal him only makes a venture upon the pleasure and goodness of Christ to heal him 2. The other is a more certain thing grounded on the Knowledg of an Interest in Christ Because a soul knows it hath Christ for its own therefore it rests on him confidently for salvation This trust follows the Knowledg of our believing and is a further act and degree of Faith and comes after our coming to him and receiving of him The Lord is my rock and my fortress Psalm 18. 2. and my deliverer My God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my tower O my God I trust in thee let me not be ashamed let not mine Psalm 25. 2. enemies triumph over me And therefore poor sinners let me oh let me invite you to Jesus Christ I tell you Christ and Justification by Christ are free for any person whatsoever to obtain by believing See John 6. 35 I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst He that cometh he that believeth that is any one that cometh any one that believeth It is an indefinite proposition and is equivalent to an universal It is as much as to say whosoever comes as it is elsewhere expressed That whosoevrr believeth in him John 3. 16. should not perish but have everlasting life that is any person whosoever may upon believing obtain Christ and Life by him The meaning is not only that Christ is free for all sorts of people for all sorts of people shall actually have Christ because God hath his elect of all sorts both poor and rich bond and free Jews and Gentiles young and old men and women wise and foolish one nation and another but that there is no particular person in the world to whom the Gospel comes who may not by believing have Christ and Salvation by him Christ is so freely tendered to all comers to all receivers to all that believe in him that there is no person of any Countrey or Condition of any Age or Sex or Sins whatsoever but by believing he may have Christ and Grace and Holiness by him This was typified by the years of Jubilee In
temptations there 's never a temptation but it is from Divine ordination and therefore is managed by the reins of Divine moderation so that as the expert Rider rules the horse and the skilful Coach-man by his dexterity guides the Coach so the wise and merciful God governs the temptation he holds the temptation in his hand with Curb and Bridle he allots it its bounds and graciously prescribes its measure so that it shall not be upon you out of measure Oh! what a rare comfort is this to a poor soul that a God so good circumscribes temptation within limits it may flow in upon you but shall not over-flow you I say it shall not overflow the banks God himself will keep and bound it within its channel its Waves may drench you but they shall not drown you The Great God that saith to the Sea Hitherto shall thy proud waves go and no farther the same God sits upon the waters of every temptation 5. In all your trials and temptations act your faith upon this principle that God will extract good out of them this is the Royal prerogative of God to do so it is his peculiar and he will do so it is spoken of him as one of his incommunicable excellencies that God commanded light to shine out of darkness It is the property of the Devil to draw evil out of good and darkness out of light but it is the sweet property of a gracious God to draw good out of evil and light out of darkness he will turn the shadow of death into the morning tempted souls the Lord who tries you will extract good out of your trials and temptations Vse 3. Expect a perpetual succession of temptations Tota fidelium vita tentatio est all the life of Believers is a temptation When one leaves you look certainly for another In your new birth you are born to temptations this life is but a long chain of successive and continued temptations The temptations of Abraham were many some casting up the accounts of his temptations that are recorded reckon them to be ten it may be I may find more concerning his habitations he was to change them thrice 1. He left his own Native Country at Gods Command and quit all his kindred and dwelt in Charran Act. 7. 3 4. 2. From thence he went at the same command into Canaan whither must he go to a place he knew not to men that knew not him 3. And there God gave him no inheritance in it no not so Act. 7. 5. much as to set his foot on which seems to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift and no gift to promise to give him a land and then to give him not a foot of land in it a shrewd temptation 4. Then there was a famine in the land of Canaan and Abraham Gen. 12. 10. was fain to go down to Egypt Canaan doth not afford him bread which yet he must believe shall flow with milk and honey to his seed 5. In Egypt he was tempted about Sarah his wife and he said Gen. 12. 11. to 17. she was his sister And Pharaoh took her into his house he was under danger of his life and which was worse his wife was under danger of her chastity 6. Then when he came into Canaan again Lots Herdsmen Gen. 13. and his fell out where they should feed their cattel and they did separate from one another and Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan he had brought Lot along with him and nourished him as his child in his bosom and now to be used so unkindly by Lot here 's another temptation 7. Then Lot his kinsman is taken prisoner and Abraham is Gen. 14. fain to engage himself in a War against four Kings for the rescue of Lot taken Captive 8. Then he was afflicted for want of an heir and complains to God What wilt thou give me since I go childless Gen. 15. 2. 9. Then again as he is offering sacrifice and the Sun was going down an horrour of great darkness fell upon him and he Gen. 15. 12 13. received sad news from God that his seed should be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them four hundred years 10. Then he is tempted with the delay of performance God Gen. 16. 1. promised him a Son but tries him sorely with delay of performance the execution of performance is put off And Sarai Abrahams wife bare him no children Abraham was old ere he had the promise and hope of a Son and still the older the more uncapable yet God makes him wait five and twenty years for performance 11. Then at his wifes perswasion he goes in to Hagar her Gen. 16. 5. maid and she brings him a Son called Ishmael and there falls out discord and contention between Sarai and Hagar and Sarai chides Abraham for it and lays the blame upon him 12. Then God commands him to be circumcised and to circumcise all his seed and all that were in his house And Gen. 17. 24. Abraham was ninety years old and nine when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin Indeed circumcision was the sign of the Covenant and Abraham was not only content to wait for God but also to smart for him God bids him cut his own flesh and he is willing to carry this painful mark of the love of his Creator not regarding the soreness of his body for the confirmation of his soul 13. Then he is tempted again by Abimelech and saith that Gen. 20. 2. Sarai his wife was his sister and Abimelech takes Sarai his wife from him 14. Then he is sorely tempted again by the ejection of his Son Ishmael for Sarah said unto Abraham Cast out the bond-woman Gen. 21. 10 11. and her son for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son even with Isaac And the thing was very grievous in Abrahams sight because of his son 15. Then he is tempted here God commanded him to kill and sacrifice his Son all the former were but easie tasks of faith to this all ages have stood amazed at this to sacrifice his Son All the other were but mole-hills to this great Mountain Dost thou take pleasure in humane sacrifice or if thou wilt have it must I be the Monster of all parents to do it must my hands destroy the fruit of mine own loins If thou wilt have him must I my self do it what none else but I my self must do it A temptation most transcendent and yet this follows after all the rest Sirs What say you Do you think to live quiet you have been tempted and now you hope to be quiet mistake not look for more still and more yet and more continually Do you think at the end of a temptation there 's an end of temptations No no they must begin again God hath more work for you to do God will
his Promises Exod. 7. 17. Is the Lord among us or not In the wilderness of the Children of Israels tempting of God was a doubting of Gods Care and Providence and Power and Wisdom of which they had so many arguments assurances and promises from him In Numb 14. 22. Their tempting of God ten times sprang from their not believing him in all his signs which he had shewed Vers 11. among them and what that unbelief was appears by their words at the 2d verse Would God that we had died in the Vers 13. land of Egypt or would God we had died in this wilderness And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be a prey Thinking that God could not preserve them or else would not go along with but leave them to be devoured by the people of the land as you may see at the 9th verse Now if you ask why sinful men tempt God it is from unbelief sometimes it springs from presumption believing more than God has promised they hope to be saved although they live in sin they are too confident and have too much faith they are over-believing 4. What is it sinfully to tempt and try God You must know as you have heard already that man may tempt God Et in excessu in defectu both in the excess and in defect 1. They tempt God who neglect second causes and use Neglectu licitorum not means which God hath prescribed when thou expectest God alone to help thee or give thee a mercy which thou oughtest to come to by thy own labour and co-operation this is to tempt and try both the Power and the Will of God They that will not labour with their hands but put it upon God to provide for them these tempt the Lord they that will not manage their estates but put it upon God to help them they sin most grievously It is true Gods Providence doth all things yet thy Providence must work with his Providence as a servant under it In Prov. 10. 22. It is said The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and yet at the 14th verse it is said The hand of the diligent maketh rich How stand these two together they are not opposita but subordinata not opposites but subordinate the one to the other Gods blessing makes rich as the principal cause and the diligent hand makes rich as the instrumental cause under Gods blessing there must be a wheel in the middle of a wheel the wheel of diligence in the wheel of Gods blessing there must be a hand in a hand the hand of diligence in the hand of blessing the diligent hand cannot make rich without Gods blessing and Gods blessing will not make rich without a diligent hand So they tempt God that divide the spirit from the Ordinance that look for Revelations and discoveries without Gospel-ordinances that look for grace without the Word that look for light without the candle of the Ministry that neglect Sabbaths neglect Ordinances and sit at home and say God will give them faith Ah ye true Phanaticks for Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God the word cannot work grace without the spirit the spirit ordinarily will not work grace without the word So they tempt God that look for God to subdue their sins and they do nothing God must master their lusts and unruly desires but themselves will not strive nor fast nor pray nor deny themselves nor wound their flesh As if an Army should stand in Battalia against the Enemy and not strike one stroke were not this a mad tempting of God and horrid self-murder Up sirs then and your selves fight the good fight of faith against your lusts Victory over sin is a mercy which thou must come to by thy own labour and co-operation 't is God indeed that hews down the strong oaks of our lusts but the Ax wherewith he doth it must be in our hands If ye through the spirit mortifie Rom. 8. 13. the deeds of the body ye shall live So they tempt God that will go in the way of means but not far enough many will pray against sin but not practise against sin as if a sick man should pray for his health but will take no physick for his health or he that hath a dangerous wound should pray to be healed but will apply no plaister they that pray for their children but do not educate them instruct reprove correct them they tempt God in that they do not use all the means for as Solomon saith Foolishness is bound in the heart Prov. 22. 15. of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him They that argue if we are elected we shall be saved though we live as we list and if we are not elected we shall be damned though we live never so holy and endeavour never so carefully these tempt God egregiously for God electing to the end elects also to the means hence that saying Praedestinatio est praeparatio gratiae in praesenti gloriae in futuro Predestination is a preparation of grace for the present and of glory for the future And therefore whereas thou sayst If I am elected I shall be saved though I live as I list the inference is most false for then 1. Conversion and Grace should be commanded in vain and because predestination alone should bring men to heaven which is a foolish conceit I say predestination alone brings no man to Heaven it is but the first link of the chain 2. Election or Predestination carrieth the means to salvation in the Womb of it so that this conditional proposition though Paul continues a blasphemer yet by vertue of his Election he shall be saved is so far from being true that the contrary ought to be inferred if Paul be not converted 't is impossible he should be saved though elected because God who elected Paul to be saved elected him to be saved by conversion not by rebellion by faith not by unbelief And whereas thou sayst if I am not elected do what I can live I never so holy though I should believe and repent I shall be damned by reason of the infallible decree I answer There was never any such decree at all in the Divine Will of damning any man though he believed and changed his life and returned to God I tell thee there was never any such Decree at all in the Divine Will but the contrary which God would have establisht for ever as most sure and certain and promulged abroad to all men That whosoever believes shall not perish but have everlasting life and he that will have the son shall have life Oh comfort unspeakable comfort and therefore come in souls come in and take Christ ye sinners and fear not Reprobation ye shall be saved Sirs let me in short give ye a blessed word fear sin and fear not reprobation if
ye fear sin reprobation can do ye no hurt To conclude as long as you remain unconverted to presume of your election Stultitiae est it is folly to affirm your reprobation Insaniae est it is madness for this is to praedamn thy self or damn thy self before-hand that is you cannot say you are elect till you are converted to say you are a reprobate though yet unconverted is to stop up your way with your own hands unto salvation To cast our selves upon any immediate providence when means fail not is to tempt God to disobey instead of believing God we may challenge God on his word we may not strain him beyond it Thus Satan when he had set Christ upon the Pinacle of the Temple bade him If thou be the Son of God cast Mat. 4. 5 6. thy self down Satan would have perswaded Christ by casting himself down to make tryal whether God would deal with him as a Son that is preserve him or no But Jesus said unto him It is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy Vers 7. God Christ replieth that this is a tempting of God for 1. Christ needed no such evidences of his being the Son of God for there came a voice from heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased This was sufficient testimony Mat. 3. 17. he needed not another proof such as Satan would have him to give 2. There were steps in the Temple by which Christ might descend and therefore needed not to tempt God or put him to such an Act of immediate Providence to preserve him we must not desire God to give any extraordinary proofs of his care of us when he hath provided the ordinary means for our safety Yet let me tell you that when all means seem to lye dead before us then to cast your self upon immediate providence for God to work is no sinful tempting of God and therefore I said to cast your selves upon any immediate providence when means fail not is to tempt God but when all means have left you then to trust God and try what he will do is no tempting of God Did not Jehoshaphat with the whole Church do so We have no might against this great company 2 Chron 20. 12. neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee that is to look and try what thou wilt do Sirs Is God tyed to means or will you tye God to means when means fail will God fail his people Yes you 'l say in this very point lieth the case for when all means are gone and have left us it is a sign that God is leaving and giving over to help for as means presenting it self is a sign of Gods Will to help so when all means are gone 't is a sign that God is giving over to help and therefore we must sit down and leave off to act faith This is indeed a rational arguing according to nature but not according to faith and therefore let me tell you you are quite mistaken for when death sits upon the lips of the second cause and speaks nothing but terror then even then you are to believe and put God to work for you Although Habbak 3. 17. 18 19. the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall the fruit be in the vines the labour of the olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like hindes feet and he will make me to walk upon mine high places Here the Church believes when all means are out of the way This is no tempting of God because you have his promise the promise and faith is the buckle and clasp fit for one another now the Lord do's not only promise to help his children but he promises to help when all means fail When the poor Isa 41. 17 18 and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry-land springs of water Ah ye Christians that you would believe at this day Will ye only believe when means are strong and have life in them ye have read of the unbelief of the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness they wanted ordinary provision and they murmured and were full of unbelief so that the Lord was angry with them and slew them and they never came into the land of Canaan but I pray what was their unbelief for which God did slay them was it this that they did not believe when they had means No but that they did not believe when all means failed this was their unbelief You say you are afraid to believe when you have no means because God hath commanded you to use the means But know I pray you 1. There is a time when God takes away the means to try our faith And how doest thou know whether this be not the day and the time Thou sayst thou canst not believe because means fail it may be it is the time of thy tryal God sends this time of purpose to try thee 2. God hath commanded you to use the means when you have them but where hath God forbidden you to trust in him when you have no means 2. God is tempted when men are addicted too much to the means as Thomas when the disciples told him We have John 20. 25. seen the Lord said he except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe What was this but to tempt Christ Sirs when we prescribe God the manner the measure then we tempt and try God 3. They tempt God that use unlawful means for all that Vsu illicitorum own a God will grant that all means work in vertue of the first cause and can do nothing without a Divine Presence and therefore all expect Gods blessing in the use of means We say you must use the means and God must give the blessing and therefore when ye use unlawful means ye tempt God to co-operate with means unlawful you try him whether he will bestow his concurrence with you in a way unlawful you prove him whether he will make his Providence go along with you in indirect means to serve your end He that tells a lye to prevent a danger or save his life tempts God and trys him to favour and bless that lye unto his safety 4. Men tempt the Knowledg of God when they make tryal whether God is acquainted with things below and knows what they are
dear Father And therefore in both his Epistles the Ink in which Paul dips his pen were his warmest Bowels to write to his beloved Timothy The design of these Epistles is various instructions teaching Timothy how he should govern the Church which he calls the house of God what Doctrines also he should Preach to the Church and several Admonitions exciting him to read and study study and read the Scriptures to execute his office with an intrepid spirit to be indefatigable in Preaching the Gospel 2 Tim. 4. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in season and out of season In a word to fear nothing in the race of his Ministry but act resolution fortitude and patience in bearing the afflictions of the Gospel In this Context where our words lye Paul would settle and corroborate Timothy ab exemplo by setting himself A causâ procatarcticâ Vers 10 11 12. an example before him But thou hast fully known my Doctrine manner of life purpose faith long-suffering charity patience persecutions afflictions yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution In which words you have 1. An Act. And 2. The Object First Here is Timothies Act Thou hast fully known all these things in me which I hope will raise up your spirit to do the like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast fully known The Object which Timothy knew so fully is expressed by Induction 1. Of Pauls Virtues 2. And of his Sufferings First His virtues Thou O Timothy hast fully known my Doctrine manner of life purpose faith long-suffering charity patience Secondly His sufferings Thou O Timothy hast fully known my persecutions afflictions 1. And they are described a circumstantia loci or ubi from the places where his afflictions and persecutions met him Which came unto me at Antioch at Iconium at Lystra what persecutions I endured 2. From the event or consequent of them But out of them Or a Contrario all the Lord delivered me 3. From the common subject of them or from the community of them they are accidentia communia common accidents yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution And therefore you must not be scared at them Timothy but resolve to have your share in them with such noble companions The words are a Proposition Categorical and Affirmative for they affirm that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution Where you have 1. The Subject i. e. the persons who are spoken of and they are all that will live godly in Christ Jesus 2. The Praedicate or the thing that is spoken or said of them and that is They shall suffer persecution And the Proposition is universal also for it affirms that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution I shall not discourse of the Praedicate or latter part of the Proposition namely the Godly's suffering of persecution for this is a common Theam and it is so true even to our sense and experience that I need not speak to it I shall therefore confine my self to the Subject or first part of the Proposition All that will live godly in Christ Jesus because I think it most concerns us to know what it is to be godly in Christ Jesus for herein the Knowledg of our eternal interests lyeth and if we can discern that we are godly in Christ Jesus we shall easily deduce our Title to Christ and a Right to eternal glory in him Now in our discourse upon this subject we must inquire First What is meant by godly Secondly Why this expression in Christ Jesus is added and what it imports all that are godly in Christ Jesus 1. What it is to be godly The words are All that will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 live godly or after a godly sort now godly presupposeth godliness as the Concret doth the Abstract for godly and godliness are Conjugata Conjugates and godly men are denominated or called so from godliness Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 godliness among other sounds it gives in Scripture speaks or signifies Religion or the true way of worship of God 2. Having now shewed you what the word godly means we come to the Addition in Christ Jesus All that will live godly in Christ Jesus For we might easily suppose that it had been enough for the Apostle to have said All that will live godly shall suffer persecution Why then doth he say or what need had he to add All that will live godly in Christ Jesus I Answer 1. This expression in Christ Jesus is added as specifica differentia a specifical difference to distingush the Christian Religion from all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Religious or Religion is the Genus and in Christ Jesus is the difference Constitutiva constituting the essence of true Religion putting it under such a kind and dividing it from all other Religions as from Divisiva Judaism which hates Christ and Graecism or Ethnicism which derides Christ and all salvation by him The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom 1 Cor. 1. 22 23. but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness The Jews sought salvation by their legal righteousness and the Greeks by their moral virtues the Christians by Christ crucified And so the meaning is this All that will live godly or religiously in Christ Jesus that is that profess the Religion of Christ or the Christian Religion they whose Religion is Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution And so they did in those days those Primitive times when the very name of Christ was so hated by the Jews and the Doctrine of salvation by Christ in opposition to all their Gods was so impugned by the Gentiles Yet because Christian Religion requires the highest holiness and therefore carries a Divine Energy and virtue in it to supernatural actions it consists not in word only but in power No Religion sanctifies but this that is of Christ Jesus what she teacheth she infuseth into the hearts of her Children she is spirit and life because she carries Christ in her and Jesus Christ came to reform and renew the world to destroy sin and dethrone Satan and bring down Heaven upon the Earth and put God and Man into an Unity again 2. Therefore this expression in Christ Jesus speaks not only an outward profession of Christ Jesus but also an Vnion with Christ Jesus and an oneness with him So that to be godly in Christ Jesus is to be one with Christ Jesus for this is the high priviledg which Christian Religion puts upon her true Disciples that Christ dwells in them and they dwell in him This is an high Divinity they are united to Jesus Christ as the branch to the tree the graft to the stock the members to the head and if united then they must also be one with him and by reason of this unity do not only partake
received it granting him all the right that he had to dispose thereof to order it as he pleaseth that being so resigned to Jesus she may not have any thing more nor be any thing more but that he may be all have all and operate all in her This act puts the soul into a perfect denudation and makes her entirely dependent upon Christ to be led according to his will 1. Let us then acknowledg the Soveraignty of Jesus over all creatures and over us in particular Confessing that he is our King and Soveraign let us adore his Supream Authority it is life and happiness to know and to serve Jesus Christ 2. Let us submit actually to his Power not out of constraint or necessity as rebels or slaves but out of choice love and fidelity as our Prince and Jesus A Christian in this state looks upon himself only as a servant to Jesus and acts in all things only in the spirit of humility and subjection to him This state of service is proper and essential to the creature in regard of God the creature is essentially dependent and subject to the Creator It is an indispensable estate the creature may as soon cease to be as cease to depend on and be subject to the Creator It is essential also unto all Christians the first step of our entry into the Church and into Faith the first operation of grace upon our souls is to become servants to Jesus Christ This subjection is the first promise we make to God by a solemn publick profession in the Church by baptism there we devote our selves to Jesus Christ to belong to him to depend on him and we enter our selves into the state of servants and vow our selves to Jesus Christ as such So that by one and the same sacrament we are made the Children of God and received his servants and consequently we are in the house of God both as Sons and Servants yet so as that we are his Children by grace his Servants by nature The state of subjection is essential to the Creature and to the Christian so the same state is essential to the Piety of Christians and a godly life and therefore they who would establish themselves in Piety or Godliness must begin their establishment in this subjection for we must bear a relation of love and inclination to Jesus Christ as we do of purchase and necessity we are so much the more Gods and consequently the more perfect by how much we are the more abased and devested of our selves entirely depending and faithfully operating under the Power and Will of him who makes himself ours that we may be his and hath purchased us to himself at an inestimable rate In three points the soul of solid Piety and the perfection of Christianity consists 1. That we are united to Christ as our head and we his members 2. That in this Union we live by his Spirit 3. And follow his motions The soul then must resign and offer up to Christ her heart and will her understanding and power to the wisdom will and power of Jesus Christ in all matters of eternal salvation This resignation is the root and ground of all obedience and service by it we renounce all other Powers Lords Masters Teachers Redeemers and especially the Devil World and Flesh so as to account them our Enemies And seeing the person submitting is a guilty person this resignation cannot be performed without an inward acknowledgment of his own sin guilt baseness misery with godly sorrow a detestation of sin and a returning to obedience again And being guilty persons impotent and unable to help our selves in this resignation we renounce all confidence in our selves and all other things so as wholly to relye upon Gods mercy and Christs merit as without which we must perish everlastingly which so works upon us that by subjection we do gladly and willingly bind our selves to be his perpetual servants and vassals And therefore as according to law the slave is no more his own nor hath any right over any thing but is wholly left to the power and pleasure of his master so by this Obligation the Christian puts himself as nothing before Jesus Christ he gives place to all his rights of Nature and Grace to be only the subject of Christs Power and Divine Will And though we are all servants to Jesus Christ by right and purchase as we said before yet we will be such also out of good will and affection giving him a new power over us i. e. by our own voluntary consent and free choice to be so that we may be Captives to his love as well as to his Power and submit to the designs of the eternal Father who Col. 1. 13. did so graciously deliver us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son This this it is to be in Christ to be in Christ is to be in this subjection to Jesus Christ And now My Beloved we who say we have taken Christ and are in subjection to him let us weigh well what we say and consider with what sincerity and faithfulness we deal with the Son of God For seeing that we avouch that we leave our selves wholly to him in the quality of servants and make profession to have nothing which is not his and of him and that we yield up all to him even to the use of our own life and natural liberty What have we more to think of but sincerely and faithfully to accomplish what we profess What have we more to do but to make our life conformable to what we say i. e. to subject our selves in will and deed to the Greatness and Soveraignty of Jesus Christ I say in will and deed for it would avail but little to say it only with the mouth and have it in the thought if all our actions be full of our own will I say it were to little purpose to subject our selves by words to the Soveraignty of Jesus Christ to the conduct of his Spirit and motions if in the management of our life we follow the Spirit of the World and live in a continual desire to satisfie our selves and our own inclinations Let us mind this because so many deceive themselves in the godly life which they so easily profess contenting themselves with the superficies and eglect the rest Remember that he who says we must adore God in Spirit said also we must adore him in Truth 5. This expression in Christ Jesus All that will live godly in Christ Jesus speaks the end of a godly life Christ Jesus is the end of a godly life they that live in Christ Jesus do live to Christ Jesus to live in Christ Jesus is not only to live by the virtue of Jesus Christ but also to the glory of Jesus Christ to seek his praise and to have his honour in our eye the godly life is not only from Christ but for Christ And therefore they that
live godly in Christ Jesus they derive it from him and direct it to him they breath for him and bring forth all their actions for him for this is essential to an Evangelical life to do all in the strength of Christ as their root and to do all for Christ as their end And if this be a godly life to live to Christ then let us so think of him and so do that from henceforth our hearts and mouths may neither speak nor think but of him that all things else may be of no savour to us that nothing enter our spirit which resenteth not the Spirit and Odour of Jesus Christ and respires not his honour and glory I say let us be vigilant and faithful to do and desire nothing but the honour of Christ to regard nothing but his pleasure and glory so as to have no eyes but for Jesus no more life but what is consecrated to the honour of his Soveraignty and Greatness Vse We have shewed you what a godly life is and how you may attain a godly life Let us now stir you up to attain this godly life 1. Let me take St. Pauls word to Timothy that which he recommends to him is Piety Exercise thy self unto godliness 1 Tim. 4. 7. Truly all virtues are good and all suitable to the state of a Christian the acquisition and practise of them all useful and necessary but he would have his prime and chief care be To exercise thy self unto godliness for godliness is the Ornament and Mistress of all other virtues it leads us to God and makes use of all virtues to conduct us thither and having no Object but God teaches us the worship and honour that we must render to him and like a good mistress puts us into a ready and easie practise of virtues and entertains us in the exercise of actions that honour God and are acceptable to him 2. Godliness is profitable as Paul saith in the same place Bodily exercise profiteth little but godliness is profitable to all 1 Tim. 4. 8. things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come True godliness is one of the principal foundations on which Christian perfection stands and is supported In the conduct of men all actions and exercises of their life are ruled according to the Piety and as we commonly say according to the Devotion they have If their Piety be not well-laid the rest of the Christian life will be unconstant and its exercises very uncertain and superficial as we see in the devotion of many which is only in the exterior Who as the Apostle saith having the form of godliness deny and despise the power thereof In such souls we see nothing solid nothing but inconstancy in their lives imperfection in their actions disquiet disturbance and adherence to several creatures in their spirits a small blast of adversity over-turns them Object But it is an hard thing to be godly we have Satan opposing us and he is too hard for us besides our own corruptions and strong temptations Answ While we strive to be godly we may safely expect the Presence of God he is never wanting to those that seek after him and never fails those that engage in his quarrels As he who plots sin shall be sure to find Satan standing at his right hand so he that pursues after God and Holiness shall find God nearer to him than he is to himself God hath not forsaken the earth but as he sustains the whole universe much more those who are seeking grace and participation of himself Are you then striving to be godly and aiming at a Divine life His almighty arms will bear you up and he 'l cherish you with his own goodness Wheresoever God beholds any breathings after himself he gives life to them as those which are his own breath in them where there is any serious and sober resolution against sin any real motion towards God there 's the blessing of heaven in it He that planted it will also water it and make it to bud and blossom and bring forth fruit Object But a godly life is an afflicted life Answ You have heard that grace in us is the life of Jesus in us We ought then to know what his life was The life of Jesus is Divinely Humane and Humanely Divine he is God and Man and therefore lives a life Divine and a life Humane As God he lives the life of God in the bosom of his Father a life of Glory Power and Majesty As Man he lived the life of Man in lowness humiliation in impotence in sufferings so that at the same he is living in the bosom of his Father and dying on the arms of the Cross There he reigns and governs and judges all the world here he is accused and accursed condemned and crucified at the same instant he is in the exaltation and greatness of his Majesty and in the lowness and humiliation of our Humanity Such also ought the Christian life to be on the one side it is great seeing grace makes us the Children of God elevates and unites us to God On the other side the same life is obscured dejected wholly in the spirit of humiliations and privations for grace cannot reign in the soul without operating therein annihilation death and humility Again The Saint by his Union to the Son of God is raised Eph. 2. 6. up and made to sit in heavenly places in Jesus Christ And at the same time the life of a Christian is exposed here to Temptations derided by men and condemned by the world at the same time it is in the greatest cherishing of God and under the fiercest agitation of the Cross So that an afflicted godly life should be no wonder being compared with the life of Christ Besides God enlightens the soul by grace 't is granted but 't is in annihilation he upholds her but 't is in confounding her he unites her to him but it is in separating her sometimes from himself and she remains separated from God as long as she remains upon earth While we are in the body we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 6. so she is at once united and separated Again This is the Conduct of God over his Church If we reflect upon the highest works we shall find he puts not on the Ornament of Grace he lays not the foundation of her estate but in lowness his grace his gifts his spirit and his communications When did he come down from heaven and give her his law with such appearance of glorious Majesty as never the like was but when he had brought her into a wilderness When the Lord Christ instituted the Sacraments which are Conduit-pipes to convey his graces to his Church he chose bread water such things as are mean little or nothing esteemed among men In the Birth of the Church he took the Cross for the Throne of his Empire a Calvary for his Seat-Royal he rejected an estate by Poverty Sufferings and Martyrdom and at this day he doth the same in the Regency of his Church And according to Gods proceedings in the Conduct of his Church is likewise his carriage in the sanctification and government of our souls he leads them by the Cross he retires from them he hides himself he leaves them in privations he humbles them annihilates them smites them overthrows them Whereby is discovered how they are as I think deceived who in their devotions and religious exercises seek resentments enjoyments content and satisfaction and would know and feel the excellency and elevations of grace I call it a deceit as I suppose for Christian grace consists chiefly in privations in lowness in rigours and that is it they stand most in fear of and avoid But as the life of Jesus began in poverty and ended on the Cross so a perfect Christian who would live a life of grace must resolve to walk among Thorns to bear privations and sustain desertions for the Cross and Thorns are things proper to Christian-grace and to the love of Jesus Let us not so much seek after assurance of heaven as a thing to come as after heaven it self present in us For where Heaven comes into a heart it will bring its own light comfort and assurance along with it Get Heaven into your soul and you will easily have the assurance of Heaven Let us have a fire in a room and we shall quickly have the light and warmth of it there also Men seek the assurance of Heaven as a thing to come but neglect the present power and possession of Heaven it self in their souls Oh! let us get the Sun it self into us and then we shall not be without its shine and smiles within us FINIS Books Printed for and are to be Sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel PResent State of New-England Burges's Husbandmans Companion Burges's Englands Bond. Adams's Catechism Survey of Quakerism A view of Antiquity by J. Honner Abyssus Mali or Man's Corruption by Nature by W. G. England's present and most great incumbent Duty by Robert Perrott The Ark of the Covenant opened or a Treatise of the Covenant of Redemption Janewayes Life Meads Almost Christian Mr. Cawtons Funeral Sermon Preached by Mr. Vincent and Mr. Hurst Phelpes Caveat against Drunkenness Wadsworths last Warning unto secure Sinners Kidder on the Sacrament Wells Funeral Sermon by Mr. Tho. Watson Mr. Wadsworths Funeral Sermon Preached by Mr. Bragg Bishop Reynholds Meditations on the Fall and Rising of St. Peter Practical Divinity of the Papists proved to be destructive unto Christianity and Mens souls Burroughs's four Treatises Dr. Collins on the Canticles