in a Tyrant But the law of sin commanding obedience that is not in a man in whom Christ is And while the fight is maintained thou maist be said to conquer though thou beest conquered He that is born of God sinneth not 1 John 3.9 For sin hath not his will but committeth a rape upon him Thus while thy infirmities are caused by the Lord to work good in thy soul they may be counted a wholsome poyson †But take heed of sinning for this end that 's wickednes Rom. 6.1 And all these infirmities cannot be said to break Covenant with God while they do not force the heart to yeeld to them And though they be troublesome to thee yet God hath said Hebr. 10. He will remember them no more The third ground of this fear 3. Thou saist thou hast discovered new sins which thou never sawest before yea after a long time in the state of grace and thou knowest not but there may be more behind undiscovered And so thy state may be bad I Answer It may be so that thou hast discovered new sins that thou sawest not before but let me tell thee the sight and knowledge of sin is good though sin be not For it may be a sign that knowledge and light increaseth in thee and that softness of heart increaseth in thee It is not an argument that sin increaseth but that light and softeness of heart increaseth For if thou seest more sins then formerly thou sawest thou discoverest but what thou wouldst know And that doth not argue thy state is naught no more then it did Jobs Job 13.23 How many are mine iniquities and sins make me to know my transgression and my sin This proved not his state nought For its good for a man to discover one after another that he may deal with them singly as it were And it is good to see them single I though it be after a long while if it be but to keep a man out of love with his own heart and it may be occasion of new humblings Quest But was it ever so with the Saints of God Ans Yea there was passion discovered in Job after a long while in the state of grace Job 3. So Jeremiah Chap. 20.14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born c. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my Father saying a man child is born unto thee c. yea and resisting God in his work in resolution at least ver 9. I said I will not make mention of him nor speak in his name c. And ambition was discovered in the Disciples of Christ after they had been long with him in a familiar way Matt. 18.1 They strove which should be the greatest a corruption that we see not breaking out before And Peter had self shewing it self in him in disswading Christ from his sufferings and his denying his Master a new sin that he fell not into before And his dissimulation for which Paul reproves him to his face Gal. 2. yea and Barnabas that son of consolation fell into that dissimulation that I never read was charged upon him before When Jonah said I do well to be angry to death was not this new with him did you ever read he did so before So Davids Adultery and plotting Vriahs death Who would have thought such corruptions should have ever started up in Jeremiah as we read of in Chap. 20. of his prophesy It doth not follow that because new sins shew themselves therefore your standing in the state of grace is not right A mistake cleared For 1. It appears the saints are in danger of falling into new sins by all those Scriptures and examples mentioned before and also by all those Caveats laid down in Scripture wherein they are bidden Take heed beware c. 2. The Saints have a subtle Adversary that will not cease to lay baits in their way with all the willines that may be And they may be overcome before they be aware as it were Gal. 6.1 If a man be OVERTAKEN with a fault c. And if new sins discover themselves then there is new occasion to go to Christ make that use of them 1 Joh. 2.1,2 These things write I unto you little children that you sin not but if any man sin we have an Advocate Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins c. 4th ground of fear 4. He findeth his heart many times loose in spiritual duties his thoughts roving and ranging abroad when they should be kept close to God by thoughts hanting him and coming thick upon him c. Therefore sure he was never right I Answ So it hath been with many of the Saints of God that find themselves in a state of grace Keep thy heart with all diligence what need such an Exhortation if the heart were not ready to be roving Rom. 7. Saith Paul I find THEN a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me THEN when Why when I would do good then Heb. 12. Ye have forgotten the exhortation c where were their thoughts then when they for gat it And so we are oftentimes commanded to remember shewing that thoughts are very apt to be roving The Apostle saith Col. 3.1,2 If ye be risen with Christ seek those things that are above c. Set your affections on things above not on things below Which shews the heart and mind and thoughts and affections had need be called together they will be stragling Rev. 3.3 Remember how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and Repent And truly God may suffer this to be to take off your trust from your duties and graces and hearts that you may plant your trust in God alone through Christ And to shew you the difference between the Spirits managing of your graces and your own managing of them that so you may plant your faith in Christ alone And therefore if you find your hearts deceitful and loose do not conclude presently that you have no work of grace in your hearts for those loose by-thoughts may rise from some other causes Causes As 1. For want of consideration what a Majesty the presence is that thou art in for if we did seriously consider that we are in the presence of the King of Kings the All-seeing God that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reyns it would make us more serious A man would be afraid of playing with a Feather while he is speaking to the King 2. It may be thy affections are very cold and chill when thou comost to duty and for want of Love being inflamed thy thoughts rove for be sure if thou take Christ as thy treasure thy heart will be upon him Mat. 6. Love will make you mind the thing loved as David Oh how do I love thy law It is my meditation all the day Mat. 6. Psal 119. 3. For want of watchfulness and vigilancy we are too apt to let the
was discovered to them then they saw it was of God These were works of the spirit as the event did shew But they saw them not for the present till the further work of the spirit did manifest them Then they saw all these to have been of the spirit So if a man have a work in his heart that he can make little of I would counsel that man to follow on to see what will come of it afterward for it may be after some other work of the spirit he shall perceive it though for the present he see it not Particulars how to discern the spirit in duties Now for particular discerning of the spirit in duty 1. Doest thou find thy heart fashioned or in fashioning to a personal love of Christ a personal union with Christ himself The Spirit of God is the Factor for Christ the Spokesman between Christ and the heart to treat the marriage So that herein the Spirit presents Christ as all fair the chiefest among ten thousand as Can. 5. His love and reign and Kingdome is presented to thee in a glorious shew Now with this dost thou find thy heart in fashioning to a desire of Union to consent to marry with such a Husband I say to a personal love not of his benefits but him first and then to all his benefits To take him as God gives him Rom. 8.32 If God have given us his son how shall he not also with him freely give us all things When he is such an object that thou canst leave Father Mother Wife Children Liberty Life and all for his sake At first there may be self-love but in time every spiritual man will rise to a personal love of Christ himself and not only his benefits 2. Doth thy heart and the word thy heart and thy petitions go together and comply so that thou art taken and much affected with the sweetnes of Christ And some sentence of Scripture or prayer that carries thee out of thy self when thy heart complies with it suddenly and strangely I mean art thou wonderfully ravished and carried out of thy self desires and ends to God and for God It argues the spirit 3. Are there any graces set a work evengelically in thy heart Love Humility Sincerity or the like That is If thy Faith or love be set a work by the love of God to thee Doth the fresh presentings of the love of Christ to thee in thy duties freshen thy love to him and thy graces in thy heart This is an Argument of the Spirit When our hearts give Eccho to Gods voice Psal 27.8 When thou saidest seek ye my face My heart answered Thy face Lord will I seek This was the Spirit of God that thus sets the heart a work to Answer to Gods voice 4. Are your hearts moved from the feeling of the experience of the love of Christ to give your selves to Christ again in duty This is the Spirit of God For the heart cannot be carried directly to Christ for Christ but by the Spirit of Christ 2 Cor. 12.9.10 And he said my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon me Therefore I take pleasure in Infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christs sake See here is doing or undergoing any thing for Christ And mark from what ground even from experience for when I am weak then am I strong 5. Observe the manner of the combat which the heart hath against the world or the flesh or any beloved sin There may be a Combat in wicked men between sin and shame Between conscience and fear of Hell between desire and fear Therefore mark when sin draws thee with what weapons thou fightest against sin Is it the love of God that makes thee thou wilt not sin Dost thou say I will not because I love God is thy heart drawn to God Evangelically Here is the Spirit lusting against the flesh not conscience against sin The manner of the fight shews whose the fight is For the Spirit of God causeth a man to set the love of God and the promise of God as the only Arrow against sin Here it is evidenced to be the Spirit 6. A man may know the Spirit by the discovery of sin for the Spirit may evidence it self in an humble discovery of sin as well as joy in working the heart to self loathing It discovers spiritual sins bye and base aims and ends secret and by respects when a man looks asquint from God secret and by turnings of the heart that never came into the eye of the world I say the discovery of sin is an excellent work of the Spirit Ezek. 36.31 I will pour upon them my Spirit saith the Lord And what then Then shall ye remember your waies and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations To discover sins so far as they are a detestation to the heart so far as they are a bar to the raigning of Christ The fourth troublesome thought is a mans questioning the truth of his conversion The fourth thought that riseth in the heart and troubleth it is this whether his translation into the state of grace be in truth or no whether he hath the sound work of regeneration or no For saith the heart there are many semblances and shaddowes of grace True faith and false True love and false like on another false Samuels ni Samuels mantle And if a man seriously weigh himself his good against his bad His sanctification against his corruptions His obedience against his rebellions and blemishes his faith with his distrust and his new work with the old man remaining If he weigh this he sticks and cannot tell which is the heavier in the ballance But as presumption and pride makes a man think the best of himself so many times when a Godly man is humbled especially when a grain of Melancholy is mixt with it it makes him think the worst of himself And hereupon a Godly man many-times questions himself and thinks all 's naught with him And so he questions whether his grace be grace or no And now his heart is troubled and doubts and discouragements rise in it Grounds of this thought Now the ground of these discouragements in this kind are such things as these 1. He saith He cannot say nor see That he was brought in to God at the first by any remarkable work of Humiliation or by any such conversion as will witness to it self by any hand of God as some others have been Therefore he begins to Question his graces 2. He finds some peculiar sins and corruptions that hath hung upon him long and hath haunted him a long time whither they be omissions loosness of heart c. that hath haunted him a long time And hence he is troubled and
not the outward name which is like a charm to charm Serpents But a faithfull opposing of Christ his merit his Love his Faith his Obedience to all that can be said And if all objections that thy heart can make be all true if they be thousands thou needest not be afraid of thy Inditement For the laying of Christ against them in the Ballance will still all As a man having a Declaration against him or an Indictment declared by some Lawyer or cunning Sophister Alas How is this man put to it to make his Answer with shifts and evasions But if he have a Pardon in his bosom he would confess guilty without fear for here is the Broad seal Here is that that puts a man out of doubt So here If conscience object all thy new and old sins that thou hast done from time to time and thou goest any other way to make good thy matter to thy conscience and not to Christ thou shalt be put to shifts with a great deal of fear to make thy answer to thy Conscience But now lay Christ in the ballance do but plead him and there is a full acquittance And if conscience object old and new sins now by faith lay Christ against these and no more If a man be upon a rock the waves that beat against it break themselves but drown not him Because he is upon a rock So when a man goes to Christ and hangs upon him by a pure faith these objections break themselves to pieces upon him A little water it may be may dash in his face but he need not fear drowning For the setling of thy self in such a case as this by faith set thy self before God in the confidence of the love of Christ and of the obedience righteousness and mediatorship of Christ alone set thy self before God in the consideration of Christ only If a subject dares not come before the king to contest with the king concerning his loyalty yet if the pardon be proclaimed then he dares come because of the proclamation So do thou If thou darest not come before God in respect of thy sins yet come because Christ is proclaimed And now you put the case to another issue for now you do not put your selvs upon trial but you put God upon trial whether he be true and faithful or no according to the word of promise which he hath delivered in the Book of God and so in stead of putting thy self upon trial thou puttest God upon trial whether he will keep his word or no. And it is a work of faith for a man to stand before God in the Love which he bears to Christ and in the acceptance wherewith God accepts Christ and in the wel-pleasedness wherewith he is well pleased with Christ I stand not now before God in the way wherewith he is well-pleased with me but in the acceptation which God bears to his son John 17.26 And I have declared to them thy Name and will declare it that the Love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them that is That thy very Love to me may redound and be efficatious upon them Here 's a matter that puts a man out of quarrels and Objections 3. If so be you see an imperfection and ebbe in your graces then by faith put into Christs hand the managing of your graces for as the custody and keeping of those graces which we have do belong to Christ so doth the welding of them by Christ make them vigorous He can make a little grace a little faith do great things make a mustard-seed cast a Mountain into the Sea Dependance and resolution by faith on Christ is that which makes a man strong when Christ holds the plough then there is no balk made Peter had Faith when he denyed his Master but he had it in his own hands and it faints but not fails Christs prayer and looks did stir it up again Habituall grace is in a man But assisting grace helps a man to act do I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me Phil. 4. and 2 Cor 4.1 As we have received mercy we faint not These assistings are called Grace with me 1 Cor. 15.10 And Hebr. 4. ult Grace to help in time of need This is that which bears you up for when habituall grace is without assistings it soon fails as you may see in Adam 4. Look up to Christ alone to bear the iniquity of your holy things for he is our High-Priest that is to bear them To him therefore flie for we are compleat in him Col. 2.10 And if the work of Sanctification in us be imperfect the blood of Christ is absolutely perfect and they are coupled together 1 Pet. 1.2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and Sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ c. So much for the General Now I come to answer the particular objections briefly The first Ground of this fear 1. Thou fearest thy state and questionest thy conversion Because thou hadst not so extraordinary a work at thy first Humiliation not such a breaking by the Law as some others have had But by intermixing fits and a soft way Therefore thou fearest I answer It s good indeed for every man to make proof of his state whether he have Christ or no 2 Cor. 13.5 But yet we must not prescribe God a way in what order and Method he shall bring us in The manner and violence of Humiliation is not essentiall to the bringing a man into the state of grace nor it is no matter whether God open the door with an oiled Key or break it to pieces so he open it For the end of Humiliation is the ingrafting of Christ saving grace into the Soul And it s no matter how the plough go so the corn growing on the Land be as good And no matter for the manner of Humiliation look to the End look to the Issue look to the fruit of it If God have not broken thy heart with the Beetle of Humiliation but thawed it more gently thank God for it God made two Mediators Heb. 12. Moses a typicall Mediator to fear and quake exceedingly and Christ the true Mediator to sweat drops of blood and be in a pittifull agony Luke 22.44 And therefore if God gives thee the sight of sin in the Sweetness of a Father in the sweetness of a Saviour more then in the wrath of a Judge And if thy tears have flown more from sorrow of Love then from sorrow of fear If he have given thee a new birth in gentler pangs it may be as true Onely take heed to one thing that is that the sweetness of Christ in his dealings make Christ as sweet to thee as thy sowre sins would have done it Peradventure if thou hadst had some remarkable note of Humiliation of Soul thou mightst have rested in some such
to provoke to love and good works But how shall this be done See Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is But exhort one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching In our Fathers house there is bread enough and to spare Luk. 15. there is all varieties to be had that may be for thy growth Thou must be joynted into the building if thou wouldst grow Eph. 2.21 In whom all the building fitly framed TOGETHER groweth into an holy Temple in the Lord. Col. 3.19 All the body by JOYNTS and BANDS having nourishment ministred and KNIT TOGETHER increaseth with the increase of God The sixt ground of fear 6. Thou hast found the exercise of thy Graces failing sometimes when thou hast had most need of them and the disposition of thy heart in the Cause of God sometimes failing coming short of that activity that should be in it or the exercise of thy graces in putting forth stained Therefore thy condition is not right saist thou Doth that follow thinkest thou Did not the Disciples Faith fail them when they had need of it when they were tost upon the Sea Where 's your Faith saith Christ they had need of it then I think you will easily grant me that And they had not the exercise of it and therefore Mark reads it How is it that ye have no Faith Mar. 4.40 Luk. 8.25 Yea and Peter when he denyed Christ had he been stedfast in the faith he had not denyed but resisted Sathan And Peters Christian boldness and courage failed him too at that time Did not Moses faith fail him when God saith ye beleeved me not Num. 20. And for Love failing If ye loved me saith Christ ye would rejoyce Ioh. 14. So Jobs Christian wisdome faild him in his affliction in Challenging God as he did to dispute with him and in justifying himself too far Therefore God reproveth him in the close of the Book And so in the text why are ye troubled Their apprehensions failed them concerning Christ But now This doth not therefore follow that they were stark dead and breath gone and they out of the state of grace because of this Why Christians graces fail them sometimes when they have need of them But then what should be the Cause that Christians faith and other graces should be at so low an ebbe when they stand in need of them I Answer 1. Because Christ alone will be seen in the business to be all in all That we may see that he doth the whole work in us and for us Col. 3 11. Isa 26 12. As at his death all must forsake him and fly and Peter deny him that he may alone do all without being beholden to man for any thing So in casting out that Divel our of the mans Son spoken of Mar. 9. The Disciples unbelief disabled them from casting him out that the power of Christ alone might be seen in doing it 2. That the people of God might be humbled out of themselves and out of the pride of their own undertakings when they see how weak they are and their graces failing them And that God is all in the thing as Job 42. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes 3. Because many times they stand too much upon their own strength and live not clearly upon Jesus Christ as they ought to do and so they miscarry And that their confidence might be regulated Therefore Peter fell that he might see the misplacing of his trust So 2 Cor. 1. We had the sentence of death in our selves That we should learn not to trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead And in another place Phil. 4. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me That we might learn to live above our graces to have grace and all from Christ 4. That so thou mightest learn to deny thy self in thy Sanctified self as well as in carnal self in thy very graces and not rest upon them That so thou mayst account all thy Righteousnesses as filthy Rags Isa 64. And be for ever kept from boasting Rom. 3.27 The seventh ground of fear 7. Thou complainest thou canst not attain to something that thou seest in other men that peradventure were in Christ after thee and are inferiour in gifts Not to that humility c. Therefore thou fearest thy state that thou art not truly converted and hast no grace I Answer That doth not follow that therefore thou hast no grace Did not Elihu pass the three Ancients spoken of in Job in understanding and wisdome Job 42.7,8 And yet I conceive they had grace For God cals for their sacrifices which he would not have done had they been wicked men For the Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Pro. 15.8 And did not Paul pass all the other Apostles in labour and sufferings and Revelations too 1 Cor. 15.10 2 Cor. 12. 2 Cor. 11. and they were in Christ before him And Mary went beyond Christs Disciples in affection to Christ for she could willingly spend the box of oyntment on Christ but his Disciples murmured at it yea not onely Judas but the rest also as appears Mat. 26.6,7,8,9,10 c. And did not Mary believe the Resurrection sooner then they and yet they were longer time with Christ then she Again consider God dispenceth his gifts differently according to his own pleasure 1 Cor. 12. To one a word of knowledge to another the word of wisdome to another Prophesie c. Now because thou hast not attained to the gift or measure of gift or enjoyment that others have wilt thou say thou hast no grace The eighth ground of fear 8. Thou complainest thou enjoyest God least many times when thou settest thy self the best about it and goest about to fit thy soul to entertain Christ or get down corruption as in fasting c. I Answ It may be so and yet thou mayst be one that hast grace too sometimes God delays to come in to his people and puts off for divers ends known to himself Hab. 1.2 O Lord saith he how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear yea cry out of violence and thou wilt not save and yet this man was Gods So Job cries out in the same words Job 19.7 Behold I cry out of wrong but I am not heard I cry aloud but there is no judgement So David also Psal 69.3 I am weary of my crying my heart is dryed my eys fail while I wait for my God And Job 23.8,9 Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him on the left hand where he works but I cannot behold him he hides him self on the right hand that I cannot see him Here ye see he sets himself about it but could not